La Ribera Quarter Field Study

La Ribera Quarter Field Study

1.       Make a list of five streets dedicated to craftsmanship or trades and describe them. What were “Els Gremis” (guilds)?

1) The Carrer de Corders was a street made up of rope makers.

2) The Carrer de Semolers was a street of wheat makers. 

3) The Carrer dels Contoners was a street of cotton makers

4) The Carrer dels Mirallers was a street of mirror manufacturers.

5) The Carrer de les Canadles was a street of candle manufactures.

“Els Gremis” translates to guilds in English.  Streets were named after the profession that was housed there.  Almost everyone was involved in guilds.  Children inherited the job of their father after training for several years and passing a mandatory exam.

2. “La casa-taller” (The house-workshop) was the typical craftsmanship family house. The same place to live and work. Describe how spaces were organized in a “Casa-taller”.

The workers of the guild tended to live right above their workshop, a building of a couple floors.  The workshop was at street level.  Large windows allowed people to view right into the workshop.  The door to the apartments was next to the workshops.  The principal floor was the owner’s.  It was the biggest and more comfortable.  The other floors were less comfortable and were reserved for the workers.

3. Observing the buildings of this area of Barcelona, mention some of the main architectural aspects that distinguish the craftsman work buildings to the industrial production ones. For example, materials, spaces or structures of the buildings and streets.

Different materials were used in the construction of craftsman buildings versus the standard industrial production ones.  Craftsmen buildings tended to be stone.  Buildings from the industrial revolution used iron, an easier building material than stone.  It also looks quite different from stone so it is easy to differentiate between older and newer buildings.

4. Find the cultural relation of this five places cited bellow to Catalan culture. Take on account the different historical periods in each case.

            Santa María del Mar

The Santa Maria Del Mar is a Catalan church that took roughly 45 years to build.  It is a great example of Catalan Gothic architecture, a style unusual in large buildings like this church. This church was built in the middle ages by the very people that worshiped in it. It was built during the height of maritime and mercantile preeminence. Located in the Ribera district, the church was consecrated in August 1384.  The interior of the church gives an impression of light and spaciousness.  Interior is almost devoid of imagery found in most other churches.

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      El Mercat del Born

El Mercat del Born is significant to Catalan culture because it is one of the first buildings that was built with iron instead of stone thus demonstrating Barcelona’s shift to the industrial age.  Located in the Ribiera district, it is the largest covered square in all of Europe and marked the start of modernism in Catalan architecture.

 El Fossà de les Moreres

               El Fossa de les Moreres is a memorial built over a cemetery commemorating those who died during the Siege of Barcelona of 1714.  There is an eternal flame representing those who died fighting for Barcelona.  The memorial is built over the original cemetery of those who died. 

La Ciutadella Park (The Fortress of Philip V by 1714)

                La Ciutadella Park was for many years the only green area in the city.  The fortress of Philip V was a castle to keep control of the city and to quell rebellions form the Catalans. It was torn down because Catalans hated it in 1841. A big tourist destination, the main attraction for years has been the zoo.  There is a lake in the park and a museum of zoology and geology.

5. After September 11^th 1714 the decrees of Nova Planta were proclaimed in Catalonia by Philip V. Mention the main changes in Catalan society doing a little research after the Field study.

              The decrees of Nueva Planta, banned almost everything in the crown of Aragon including everything Catalan.  All cultural, politics, language, and Catalan traditions were banned by King Phillip V.  Castilian traditions replaced everything Catalan, with central direction coming from the king thereby creating a single cultured nationalized country. The decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Phillip 5, effectively created a Spanish identity that did not distinguish between Castilian and Aragonese anymore. 

6. What is El Consolat de Mar?

        El Consolat de Mar (meaning the Consulate of the Sea in English) was a judicial body that was from Aragon and later spread to the Mediterranean area to enforce maritime and commercial law.  This Catalan term now refers to commercial arbitration and trade-promotion offices owned by Barcelona.

Museu d’Història de la Ciutat

Working in the Field – Museu d’Història de la Ciutat

Take your Camera - This assignment is about finding similarities or roots in Catalan Culture related to Antich Roman Influence. Don’t forget this is a work to be included as one of your journal entries.

1. Take five pictures of Roman Monumental influence and its engineering capacity in Barcelona: Walls, Towers, sewer system, public baths, streets. Write your comments on comparisons with today Catalan buildings.

The Barri Gotic area of Barcelona is beautiful and unique in its Roman influence.  The streets are quite narrow and all the buildings are made out of stone.  The Roman engineering is remarkable.  The notion of a sewer system, public baths, walls and towers represented quite advanced engineering for the time.  The Barri Gotic represents a fundamental difference from today’s “average” Catalan building.  An average building tends to have a colorful façade with apartments with many windows above the storefront standing at street level. The streets are less narrow and did not tend to open up into public squares. The Roman buildings tend to be all stone.  Alleyways in the Barri Gotic area are much narrower than those of the normal Catalan street and many streets lead to a public square.

2. Find 3 images of Roman Religious artifacts. Religious life: From Polytheism to Monotheism. How can you explain the change and its cultural meaning.

The change from Polytheism to Monotheism was very important.  It was the transition from the Roman idea of worship of many gods, representing many different values and objects, such as Bacchus, god of wine and Diana, the goddess of the hunt, to one all-encompassing god.  This was a big cultural shift and the change brought about many challenges in the faith. The emphasis on wine in religious ceremonies is partially associated with the paganism of the Romans. Christianity took over as the main monotheistic religion and has been like that ever since. 

3. Take five pictures on construction similarities and find some Catalan buildings with roman Catalan decorative arts today. Architecture: houses in roman times and today (Domus Romana). Write a paragraph on its similarities. Can we find similarities too with American architecture? Why?

Column’s represented Roman art and architecture.  Houses tend to center around a central open-air square where people can relax and enjoy the sunlight.  While walking around the Barri Gothic region of Barcelona I found that the Roman influence is large.  Many times walking through the halls of a building you would stumble out to a central square that opened up to the sky.  The Domus Romana also tended to have separate areas for kitchen and bath, much like the houses of today. It seems like the Roman Domus Romana really set the stage for what a modern house is in Catolonia, at least in the Barri Gotic area. 

The same goes for America.  Although less common, I have seen houses with a central courtyard just like the Domus Romana.  There is clearly some kind of influence that carried over to America. Columns also play a role in the architecture of the federal buildings in Washington DC. 

4. Domestic objects: make a list and compare some of antique Roman habits through artifacts found on the museum. Explain your opinion and tell which one surprised you and why. 

1) Toilets situated right next to each other. 2) Collective bath houses. 3) Explicit artwork (including genitalia).

Looking through the many photos I took, one of the most surprising habits to me was the design and explicitness of the Roman art.  They were not afraid to show and sculpt genitalia. This is surprising to me because we now live in a culture where exposing yourself is highly frowned upon.  However to the Romans, painting genitalia was the best way to express the human body in its purest form.  However just my surprise at the directness and lack of subtly of the art really surprised me and stuck out to me more than anything else in the museum.

5. Images and Gods related to Food and Wine. How did Romans left Wine Culture in Catalunya and how is today? Can you imagine how wine was transferred to Christian Religion? Write about Wine Culture today in Catalunya finding at least 2 examples of Wine brands popular today.

The Romans left a large influence on wine culture in Catalunya.  They established the methods and style of the wine in Catalunia, mostly centered around Tarragona.  They increased the number and variety of grapes that were grown.  However, wine production nearly stopped once Roman rule fell around the 4^th century.  Currently, Catalonia is one of the leading wine producers of Spain.  It had embraced the use of modern technology in the wine and has increased the quality and variety of the offerings.  This incorporation of technology has differentiated Catalan wine from other Spanish wineries, some of which do not include the use of technology in there wine.  

Two large wine brands that are popular today include Penedes and Gramona.  Both wineries sit on vast land and produce their own wine with their own distinctive styles. The wine produced in Catalonia was very important for Christianity. In the 1960s Tarragona started to focus on producing wine for the church.  Production of wine to be used for Communion became commonplace.  Tarragona also started to produce dry white wines.