CATALAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 13: 27-42 (2020) Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona DOI: 10.2436/20.1000.01.164 · ISSN (print): 2013-407X · e-ISSN: 2013-4088 http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/CHR Civil Gothic architecture in Catalonia, Mallorca and Valencia (13th-15th centuries) Eduard Riu-Barrera* Archaeologist and historian Received 21 February 2019 · Accepted 25 September 2019 Abstract This article is an introduction to the civil or secular Gothic architecture in the Catalan Lands (Catalonia, Mallorca and the region of Valencia) from the 13th to 15th centuries and its spread to Italy under the influence or dominion of the royal house of Barcelona. A general introduction to its formal and constructive features is followed by a sketch of the genesis and morphological diversity of some of the main building typologies, along with a presentation of the most important castles, palaces, urban homes, town halls and govern- ment buildings, mercantile exchanges and baths. Keywords: Catalan civil Gothic architecture, bath, urban house, town hall, castle, Generalitat, mercantil exchange (Llotja), palace General considerations Both religious and secular architecture developed on con- tinental Catalonia and in the region of Valencia, as well as Just like most old architectures, Gothic architecture is on the Balearic Islands, specifically the island of Mallorca, primarily defined and known through religious works, following quite similar formulations. that is, through churches and their associated sacred Even though this architectural corpus is a subset within spaces. There is no question that among all the buildings what is known as the southern Gothic, it has a very dis- that stylistically fall within the Gothic, churches repre- tinct personality which was spread to or influenced other sent the peak and boast the most art, but they actually di- lands to differing degrees by the royal house of Barcelona verge little from civil or secular Gothic architecture. In- or the Kingdom of Aragon, alongside strong influences stead, they share forms and solutions in both their exerted in the opposite direction as well. Catalan Gothic construction and decoration, and thus both sacred and architecture emerged throughout the 13th century and secular architectures comprise a culturally and structur- lasted until the shift from the 15th to 16th centuries, when ally seamless whole. Civil or secular architecture deserves it began to decline, although not suddenly; it gradually to be considered a very important part of Gothic archi- languished until almost the 17th century in certain re- tecture, and it encompasses works of extraordinary qual- gions and settings.2 ity, along with a broad typological repertoire spanning The similarity between civil and religious Catalan everything from residential and working buildings to Gothic architecture is not grounded exclusively on stylis- roadway infrastructures and military works, always with tic concordance or decorative unity; instead, it also re- differing degrees of artistic intensity and elaborateness flects an architectural, structural and compositional con- depending on the purpose and hierarchy of both the gruence, even though the spaces may be quite different. In building and its developers.1 fact, all the architecture was based on two essential con- There are several geographically, culturally and politi- structive solutions: the ribbed vault and the diaphragm cally distinct schools within European Gothic architec- arch. The buildings made with these features always con- ture, although the geographical divisions that are aca- sisted in a rather simple volume covered with a flat roof in demically prevalent today are unfortunately more defined the case of vaults and a pitched roof with wooden beams by the borders of contemporary states with all their na- in the case of diaphragm arches, creating interior spaces tionalistic baggage than by mediaeval historical realities. free of supports, as most of the weight was transferred to the outer buttresses. The internal space was left open or divided into bays separated by arches or columns in some * Contact address: Servei del Patrimoni Arquitectònic. Generalitat de Cat- alunya. Carrer de la Portaferrissa 1, 08002 Barcelona. Tel. +34 935547373. temples and mercantile exchanges. Horizontality pre- E-mail: [email protected] vailed inside the building, with large, flat façades in which Catalan Historical Review-13.indb 27 07/10/2020 16:22:44 28 Cat. Hist. Rev. 13, 2020 Eduard Riu-Barrera the solid space outweighed the openings of the doorways two parallel bodies connected by a slender gallery of ar- and windows. Severe or contained ornamentation did not cades on the main floor. disfigure the architectural morphology but instead en- Mercantile exchanges, impressive representations of hanced it using the linear resources of cornices, mould- the power of the mercantile corporations that built them, ings and interplays of planes and protrusions. are the secular buildings where Gothic architecture Ribbed vaults and diaphragm arches were adopted achieved its most striking expression, and the exchanges throughout the 13th century, as Romanesque construc- in the Catalan Lands are unique in Europe. The most im- tions with barrel vaults waned and then virtually van- portant mercantile exchanges are in Barcelona, Palma, ished. Ribbed vaults, which transitioned from simpler to Perpignan and Valencia. Those in Catalonia, which were more complex stellar vaults as the 15th century pro- built in the second half of the 14th century, have a spa- gressed, were found in both church naves and small chap- cious hall at street level with a flat beamed ceiling held up els, as well as the halls of Bellver Castle on Mallorca in the by slender and extraordinarily tall arcades. The mercan- early 14th century and the ground floors of large urban tile exchanges on Mallorca and in Valencia were built in hospitals in the early the 15th century. Well into this same the 15th century and are much more architecturally and century, they were used in a way reminiscent of chapter- sculpturally elaborate. They consist in a single building houses in the contracting halls of the majestic mercantile occupied by a large hall with ribbed vaults held up by spi- exchanges of Mallorca and Valencia, until they reached ral columns, and bays with large windows featuring elabo- their peak in the Barons’ Hall in Castel Nuovo in Naples. rate tracery. Also noteworthy are the hospitals established A wide range of buildings had naves covered with ceiling in many towns, often with mixed civil and religious pur- beams over diaphragm or other kinds of arches, from the poses, whose construction programmes were more mod- simplest to the most elaborate ones, in both rural areas est or ambitious depending on their importance. They in- and urban nuclei. Naves with diaphragm arches or simple clude the hospitals in Lleida, Montblanc and Solsona from beams can be found in churches, monastic dormitories the 15th century, built in the style of four-winged patri- and refectories, both older ones such as Poblet and Santes cian homes around a courtyard. Another typology that Creus and more recent ones such as Pedralbes and Vall- had developed in the 14th century or earlier consisted in bona de les Monges. Yet they also shaped myriad palace tall naves covered with diaphragm arches, sometimes just or castle halls, including significant examples in the for- a single hall and other times organised into wings around tresses in Peratallada and Verdú and the court complexes a courtyard. One example of the latter is the huge Santa in Barcelona, Palma and Perpignan, in addition to the Creu hospital complex in Barcelona, which started to be hospitals in Barcelona and Vic, the naves in Barcelona’s built in around 1400 and was never finished, where the shipyards and Valencia’s Grau, the audience halls in the large halls were arranged around a ground floor covered mercantile exchange and city hall of Barcelona, as well as with timbrel vaults with a cloister around it. endless cellars, warehouses and rooms of all kinds, always Another of the greatest, most exceptional Gothic crea- corporate or seigneurial.3 tions in the Mediterranean region, though similar to Va- The most important civil Gothic architectural monu- lencia’s Grau, is Barcelona’s Drassanes (arsenal or ship- ments in the Catalan Lands are obviously found in the yard). From the start, it was designed to be a large open larger cities and include major civic facilities as the ex- courtyard encircled by a wall with towers on the corners, pression of the power held by the cities, estates or corpo- while the interior installations were temporary. Well into rations that ran them; of their commercial power; or of the 14th century, a series of parallel naves began to be their governing authority and military capacity, expressed built in this interior space until it was entirely filled; they in city walls or arsenals. The buildings housing municipal were connected by large arcades with pillars supporting governments, town or city halls particularly stand out in the diaphragm arches that held up the pitched tile roof this category. Their utmost expression is found in Barce- that rhythmically encloses the space. The original prem- lona, where a majestic building was erected throughout ises were expanded several times from the 15th to the the last third of the 14th century, dominated by a large 17th-18th centuries, although they always followed the rectangular hall covered with flat ceiling beams held up original Gothic style.4 It is further worth noting that the by semicircular diaphragm arches. The façade facing Car- sovereigns had more or less permanent, sumptuous resi- rer de la Ciutat was magnified with elaborate ornamenta- dences in the cities within their kingdom, although the tion and painstaking sculptural details, some of which are most important ones were in Barcelona, called the Palau the handiwork of master Arnau Bargués from the 14th to Reial Major and Menor (Main and Lesser Royal Palace), 15th centuries.