Out and about in Valencia, March 14
David and I walked across the bridge over the park to La Lonja, the Silk Exchange. It was the headquarters of the merchants who traded in the beautiful silk fabric* produced in Valencia in the 1400s. It has a main hall with fluted columns, a garden plaza, and an exquisite meeting room on the second floor. In the lower levels are brick lined cellars to store the silk fabric under the building. Silk production came to the Iberian Peninsula with the Arab settlers. While Granada and Toledo were centers of the fabric manufacture, Valencia became the main producer of both the fiber and the fabric by the 1700s. This continued until modern times when silk was more readily available due to the openings of the Panama Canal and the production of less expensive, synthetic fabrics.
One of the beautiful additions to the building is a wooden ceiling saved from the City Hall and installed there. It is older than the La Lonja and an example of early Medieval master craftsmanship. It was created between 1418 and 1445. When the old City Hall was demolished in the 1800s, it was rescued and put in storage. In 1921, it was restored and installed in what is called the Golden Chamber of the Silk Exchange. It is well worth the climb up the wide stairs to the chamber to see it.
We went on to visit the Museo de Prehistoria de Valencia, one of the surviving city gates from the Medieval walls, and a diorama of what the city looked like in the early 1700s. It is interesting to compare it to how far the city has spread. We also walked past many of the Fallas displays as we walked around the city.
*Since writing this article, I have learned that Valencia never really produced the silk fabric. They were famous for raising the silk moths and producing the silk thread. These are extremely complex and human-intensive steps. Here is a history of silk.
