VALENCIA - Silk market (WHS Unesco)
La Llotja de la Seda or Mercado de los Mercaderes is the most important Valencian civil Gothic building and in 1996 it was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco. It was built between 1482 and 1584.
The construction is made up of three bodies: first the Trading Room followed by the central tower and, to the left, the Consulate of the Sea (if we look at it from the Market Square). The Hall of Columns or Trade Hall occupied the first part of the building and is a large room divided into three longitudinal naves by helical columns. The central tower has a ground floor and two upper floors, which were originally the jail for merchants declared bankrupt.
