Novoli fruit and vegetable market, Wholesale produce market in Novoli district, Florence, Italy.
The Novoli fruit and vegetable market is a wholesale facility in the Novoli district of Florence, built to distribute produce from farmers to the city's shops and restaurants. The building has a wide roof with large overhangs that keep the interior open and well-lit without the need for many internal supports.
Construction started in 1939 but was interrupted by World War II, during which the unfinished halls were used to shelter people who had lost their homes. The building was eventually completed between 1955 and 1958.
The market's name comes from the Novoli neighborhood, a former agricultural area on the northern edge of Florence that gradually became an industrial zone. Today the building is still a working hub where suppliers and buyers meet in the very early morning hours, long before the city wakes up.
The market operates mainly on weekday mornings, when suppliers and buyers carry out their trade before the rest of the city starts its day. Anyone wishing to have a look should arrive early and be careful not to get in the way of the ongoing work, as vehicles and workers move around constantly.
The roof design was inspired by American market buildings and was considered unusual for European construction at the time it was built. The wide overhangs were achieved without heavy internal supports, which engineers of the period saw as proof that new building techniques could work on this side of the Atlantic.
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