Generali Building

The Generali Building (Hebrew: בניין ג'נרלי, Binyan Generali) is a landmark office and commercial building on Jaffa Road in West Jerusalem. Designed by Marcello Piacentini, chief architect of the Italian Fascist regime, it served as the Jerusalem branch of the Assicurazioni Generali insurance company from 1935 to 1946. In 1946 the British Mandatory government nationalized the building and enclosed it and several other structures at the eastern end of Jaffa Road in a fortified security zone. With the end of the Mandatory government in 1948, the building was taken by the Irgun. Since the establishment of the state, the Generali Building has housed the offices of the Jerusalem District Administration and other government agencies, and street-level stores. The building's neoclassical and modern architecture, and large, rooftop sculpture of a Lion of Saint Mark have made it a prominent landmark in downtown Jerusalem.