El born again virgin

The trip started out the same as the other two. We gathered at the stop light directly outside of the “global campus” and made our way down Via Laietania. This time, however, instead of making a right towards the cathedral, we made a left, into an area I was not as familiar with. We were entering the Born area, with is located on the opposite of Via Laietania from the Cathedral, the Jewish Quarter, and the initial site of Barcino. This area was started by merchants and workers, and became very important to the city structure as time went on.

The first thing that stuck with me from the trip was that each of the different guilds had their own street. For example, the iron workers guild had their own street, as did the wool workers guild. And each street was marked by a tile painting of its respective guild. All of the workers agreed on the price of their product, so that it would be the same in all of the stores. This left no room for competition between store owners. I like this idea because it gave everyone an equal chance to make a living and not have to worry about competing with the other members of the guild. However, it seems like an impossible system because of the natural tendency of a market to follow ‘supply and demand’. I think it could work in a very small system for a short period of time, but in a growing city, eliminating all competition could not last.

It was nice to see that some people still carry on the family tradition and maintain their shops in this part of the city. However, almost all of them are gone and bars, restaurants, and souvenir stores have since moved in. There is still evidence of the old shops though. If you see a store window with little windows going up the building, that is an old shop. The shop would run from the street, and the family and workers would live above. The small open-air windows are the stairwell. It’s a shame how difficult it is to preserve the past, but teaching newer generations about how things were is a good way to preserve the memory of those old ways. There is not much else you can really do.

We made our way through the slender streets towards Santa Maria del Mar. This church was built directly next to the beach in the 14^th century, but since then the beach has been moved out a little bit. It’s a pretty massive looking building in the center of a small square. There are some decorations surrounding the portal, but aside from that it is pretty plain. We were told that the Castilian church built around the same time was covered in decorative elements and gold. The Castilian church was built to show the wealth of the empire at the time, but the Santa Maria del Mar was built by the merchants of the town as a place to worship. They did not need to build anything flashy, just something that was theirs. I like that.