La Lonja de la Seda

La Lonja de la Seda
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The Lonja de la Seda (Silk Exchange) in Valencia was founded in 1469 as a market for oil. The design was derived from a similar structure in Palma de Mallorca; the architects were Pedro Compte, Juan Yvarra, and Johan Corbera. It was not until 1498 that the crenellated tower and the Flamboyant Gothic trading hall were completed. Other construction and decoration works lumbered on until 1533. During subsequent centuries, La Lonja functioned as a silk exchange.


Year Decision Comments
1996 Inscribed Reasons for inscription

Reviews

Ian Cade (England):
Valencia is one of those cities that make me love travelling in Europe. Whilst I really enjoy visiting the big cities Paris, London, Rome etc. it is the dense cluster of smaller cities that make travelling around the continent really rewarding and also account for the huge concentration of World Heritage Sites in this small part of the world.
La Lonja de la Seda is a pretty impressive monument to Mediterranean mercantile trade, and as outlined by David below has some fine gothic architectural detailing, and I am in full agreement that the one truly exceptional part of this are the spiral pillars of the main trading hall (picture). The courtyard garden and ceiling in the upper chapel are also very nice. On the whole though la Lonja is nice but nothing that I would really say was exceptional.
One quibble I have with the site is that aside from two signs displaying the WHS symbol there is absolutely no information on why this is an important/ exceptional building, there were free tours every hour or so, but unfortunately my Spanish is terrible so I couldn’t take advantage of this. It would be nice just to have an explanatory board or leaflet/ guidebook available, I had to rely on the advisory body report on the UNESCO website to put this place in some sort of context.
Anyway this was far from an unrewarding ‘city break’. La Lonja sits in a nice part of the old town with a wonderful ‘Modernisme’ market directly opposite, great for picking up fresh produce for lunch. There are also plenty of restaurants and bars around, we had a great evening eating at the unique Bacca D.O.C just behind La Lonja before bar hopping until the small hours in Barrio del Carmen.
The rest of Valencia’s historic centre was nice, though I wouldn’t say it was of World Heritage standard it does have plenty of worthy monuments and plenty of bars to sit and watch the world float by. It is also handy that the weather was fantastic when we visited and there is a tram direct to the beach.

However Valencia has a huge ace up its sleeve. In the 1960’s the river Turia was diverted to help control flooding, this has been turned into a sweep of parkland, which is a real joy to wander around. However about 1 mile south of the city centre there is a remarkable venture taking shape. Valencia born architect Santiago Calatrava is creating something astounding in the shape of the City of Arts and Sciences (see my profile picture). The already completed projects are exceptional and warrant at least a half-day of exploration. The Palau des Artes Renia Soifa (Opera House) has to rank as one of the finest buildings I have ever visited. Even if you are not a modern architecture aficionado these are instantly accessible and joyous buildings and I wouldn’t hesitate in supporting them as a future World Heritage Site. There is also a link to la Lonja as Calatrava was greatly influenced by the pillars of the main hall, this relationship can easily be seen when looking at the pillars around the Science Museum and l’Umbracle.
All in all Valencia was a fine place to spend a few lazy days, and whilst la Lonja may not be the most exceptional of WHS you will be able to see something of outstanding universal value actually being created. Highly recommended!
Date posted: April 2008
David Berlanda (Italy / Czech Republic):
In our travel around Spain we have been to the beautiful city of Valencia and have visited the Lonja de la Seda (Silk Exchange), a nice group of buildings built between 1482 and 1533 in Late Gothic Flamboyant style, originally used for silk trading and then for commerce in general. The rectangular space of the Lonja includes the huge Trading Hall, the square Tower with the Chapel, the Consulate and the garden.
The exterior of the buildings (to visit it well you have to see all the façades) is crenellated and finely decorated with ornamented windows and doors (the main doorway is the nicest), gargoyles, coat of arms and religious and profane sculpture. The most noteworthy features of the exterior are certainly the nicely decorated windows of the upper floor of the Consulate, also with portrait medallions and gargoyles, forming a sort of gallery. The exterior of the buildings is certainly nice, but in my opinion it isn’t exceptional, because there are many palaces comparable to this one.
The interior is opened from 9.15 to 14 and from 17.30 to 21 (in winter from 16.30 to 20); it is always closed on Monday and on Saturday and Sunday there is a free ticket. The main feature of the Lonja is the enormous Trading Hall. It is divided in three aisles by five rows of incredibly high and strange spiral columns (this is in my opinion the only one feature of the Lonja really stunning, even if it isn’t unique; for example, it reminds me the columns of the church of the Jacobins in Toulouse) from which the vaults spring; interesting is also the Latin inscription in Gothic characters on the walls and the coloured floor. Adjacent to the Trading Hall is the square chapel, on the ground floor of the tower, with nice vaulting springing from the corner columns. The three storeyed Consulate building contains on the first floor the Gilded Chamber, with carved, gilded and painted decoration, notable above all because its really beautiful coffered ceiling, and on the ground floor an absolutely ordinary and even not nice room.
Apart from the WHS, the historic centre of Valencia as a whole is beautiful and contains many important monuments, nice streets and squares. The most important building is the cathedral, a mixture of many different styles, the most composite church I have seen in Spain, with a fine baroque façade, a strong Gothic tower, beautiful portals and above all the finely decorated drum. The most beautiful view of the cathedral is from Virgin Mary’s Square, on which overlooks the strangest façade of the church, very unusual because of its strange Renaissance loggia, which looks more as a façade of a palace. Other important monuments are the huge Generalitat Palace, quite similar in the late Gothic style to the Lonja de la Seda, the incredibly enormous Gothic twin city gates of Serrans and Quart, among the most beautiful I have ever seen, and the Renaissance Patriarch’s College. A special mention should be made for the Marquis de Dosaigües’s Palace, certainly the most beautiful in Valencia, with stunning reliefs, sculptures, an incredibly fine portal and the perfect contrast of many harmonic colours. Valencia has also some of the most beautiful buildings of contemporary architecture in Europe in the breathtaking complex of the City of the Arts and the Sciences, 350000 square metres large, mainly built by Santiago Calatrava, with huge buildings like the Sciences Museum, the Arts Palace, the “Hemisfèric”, the “Umbracle”, the “Oceanographic” and the works for a lyric theatre still going on. A very unusual feature of Valencia is the park placed in the huge bed of the dried river Turia, where is also the beautiful Palace of the Music and the Exposition Bridge.
I quite liked the Lonja de la Seda, but I think it is worthy of a visit if you are in Valencia more than of a long travel to visit expressly it; however the whole historic centre absolutely deserves a visit, as it is really beautiful. I think that it could be inscribed on the WHL entirely and not only the Lonja de la Seda, which in my opinion, even if it is very nice, authentic and conserved, isn’t really unique on its own as there are many similar beautiful palaces.
In the photo is the main façade of the Lonja de la Seda.
 
Jeremy Tollpuddle (England):
The silk exchange is pretty impressive and so is Valencia. I was surprised to find such a great city with some fantastic architechture and parks. well worth a visit if you are in the area
 


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