The Exchange Market of Mortara

Mortara has been a fundamental trading center ever since the Roman age. The area has been crossed by  many roads ever since antiquity: the most famous one is the Francigena road, which crosses part of Europe, before reaching Rome.

This role as intersection for trade and business has crystallized itself in time, becoming nowadays the most illustrious place for rice negotiation in all of Lomellina.

At the end of the XVIII century, due to the great production of meat from local farmers, the Municipality of Mortara decided to build a structure, the Slaughter. This building is evidence of the elegance of the industrial architecture of the time. After the slaughter was closed down, the space was abandoned, later undergoing extensive renovations which have preserved its ancient characteristics, turning it into the current Exchange Market for the negotiation of the rice produced in Lomellina. Every Friday the Price List is created and published by all the trade press, becoming the main reference for commercial exchanges of the product.