One of the best examples of Spanish civil Gothic, represented by the Lonja de la Seda de Valencia, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. Lonja also called Merchant's or Home Recruitment, now continues to fulfill its business dedicated to the hiring of agricultural products, but also hosts many exhibitions and concerts in what is now the headquarters of the Academy of Culture Valencia.Construida in the fifteenth century under the direction of the architect Pere Compte, occupies an area of ​​1,990 m2 garden are spread over a three-storey building with crenellated top floor. The two bodies are distinguished: the right houses the front office, while the left is the building that houses the old Consolat de Mar, founded in 1283.

The front office of the Lonja de la Seda is conceived as a symmetrical rectangular space that opens onto the market square on a escaleras.Posee high ceilings supported by 24 original helical columns 18 meters tall, eight of them in middle of the room and the other attached to the walls of his three ships. These pillars, twisted like skeins of silk, open to form the ribs of the vault. The floor is covered with marble of different colors Alcublas. The main entrance is flanked by two windows, twin stone tracery. The capital that crowns the mullion stages the flogging of a man in a warning to unscrupulous merchants. The overall impression of the whole is the elegance and balance of lines, accentuated by the perfect symmetry.

Next to this room stands the tower with only three windows. Inside there is a spiral staircase of 110 steps without central axis, which was a real architectural display of the time. The body under this turret was occupied by the old chapel of the Conception of the Virgin, characterized by high ceilings. The room has a vaulted main floor was flat, just as the upper floor used as a prison.

The Consulate can be reached by one of the doors of the front office through the courtyard. Its internal dimensions are 10.2 x 8.3 meters. The downstairs lounge was once the headquarters of the Commercial Court. The main hall or Chamber Daurada (Golden Hall) highlights the extraordinary wood paneling. It is a rectangular piece of the fourteenth century is characterized by large beams that are supported by finely carved braces.

This unique Spanish Gothic style building was to host the first destination of the oil market bag, and then engage in silk, from which comes the name generally known and also maritime trade. Later housed the institution of the consulate, or Consolat de Mar, and Valencia or Taula Taula of Canvis, founded in 1408, a large municipal institution bancarria solvency.

The power and wealth that this Mediterranean city of merchants accumulate mainly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries justified the construction of this building unique for its architectural and historical value has earned inclusion on the World Heritage List.

To visit the Lonja de la Seda: Tuesday to Saturday open 10am in the morning to 14h and from 16h30 to 20h30, Sundays and holidays visiting hours are from 10h to 15h.

The ticket price is two euros, children, seniors and students and groups of at least 10 people pay a euro. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays the price of admission is free.

Silk Exchange, Market Square address, Valencia

Emblematic buildings of the Plaza del Mercado de Valencia