Valencia (Spain)
45 minutes
Languages: Spanish , English
The Lonja de la Seda (Silk Exchange) is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in the center of the city of Valencia. The building was conceived in the XV century as a temple for Mediterranean traders, and from them the Consolat del Mar (a political institution formed by the Crown or Aragon) ruled trade, customs and ordinances in the Mediterranean basin. The building has an impressive architecture that combines moralistic and religious elements with spaces dedicated to legal enforcement, commercial networking and trade (not only of silks, but of all the products imaginable during the middle ages, including exotic currencies and bills of exchange).
This tour offers visitors the possibility to familiarize with curious architectural elements that are closely related with the social realities and the history of medieval Mediterranean towns. Also, visitors can indulge their curiosity over how the Kingdom or Aragon came to become a Mediterranean empire by the end of the Middle Ages, and the role that the city of Valencia as the final destination of the Silk Road.