The complete mid- to far- infrared continuum energy distribution collected with the Infrared Space Observatory of the Seyfert 2 prototype NGC 5252 is presented .
ISOCAM images taken in the 3–15 µm show a resolved central source that is consistent at all bands with a region of about 1.3 kpc in size .
Due to the lack of on going star formation in the disk of the galaxy , this resolved emission is associated with either dust heated in the nuclear active region or with bremsstrahlung emission from the nuclear and extended ionised gas .
The size of the mid-IR emission contrasts with the standard unification scenario envisaging a compact dusty structure surrounding and hiding the active nucleus and the broad line region .

The mid IR data are complemented with ISOPHOT aperture photometry in the 25–200 µm range .
The overall IR spectral energy distribution is dominated by a well-defined component peaking at \sim 100 µm , a characteristic temperature of T \simeq 20 K and an associated dust mass of 2.5 \times 10 ^ { 7 } M _ { \odot } which greatly dominates the total dust mass content of the galaxy .
The heating mechanism of this dust is probably the interstellar radiation field .
After subtracting the contribution of this cold dust component , the bulk of the residual emission is attributed to dust heated within the nuclear environment .
Its luminosity consistently accounts for the reprocessing of the X-ray to UV emission derived for the nucleus of this galaxy .
The comparison of NGC 5252 spectral energy distribution with current torus models favors large nuclear disk structure on the kiloparsec scale .