Plaza del Mercado - La Lonja de la Seda of Valencia. The Silk Exchange
Go into this building and look up. It has spectacular spiral-shaped columns holding up the roof. Have a close look at stone decorations round the doors and the gargoyles.
There is one where the devil is sticking the end of a pair of bellows up a sheep's bottom that is being held by a woman. Very strange!
This merchant hall took more then 50 years to build and was finally finished in 1533. It is an amazing piece of late gothic Valencian architecture. It's original function was a silk exchange, a trading hall for the Valencian silk merchants.
The textile and silk industries were very important in Valencia during the XVII and XVIII centuries. Walk through to the patio garden full of orange trees and look to your left at the exquisite tower and crenulated wall. Dishonest merchants were imprisoned in the tower.
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