El Born (archaeological site)
In the archaeological site of El Born in Barcelona under the market hall of the same name in today's La Ribera district , significant parts of the old city quarter, which was destroyed after the siege and capture of Barcelona by Bourbon troops in 1714 for the construction of a citadel , have been uncovered and documented. The site is part of the Born Center de Cultura i Memòria (also: El Born CCM ), which was opened to the public in 2013. This cultural and museum center integrates the archaeological site as well as associated exhibitions and activities. A second historical axis of this museum-archaeological cultural center is the market hall, which was built in a modernist style by the architect Josep Fontserè i Mestre after the demolition of the citadel (1869) and was inaugurated in 1876 as a steel structure with numerous glass elements . In the archaeological part there is a network of streets, sewers, houses, palaces, shops and handicrafts such as blacksmiths, cloth factories and boiler workshops. In addition to these early modern excavations, Roman traces have been proven on today's neighboring Carrer Comerç through the presence of very rare ceramic material. In addition, a Muslim necropolis from the 4th and 7th centuries AD has been documented in this area. El Born is one of the most important places in Catalonia, where a medieval-early modern and a modern urban plot of more than 8,000 m² in size intermesh.
location
The site is located in the underground of the old market hall El Born in the first Barcoleneser district Ciutat Vella , in the district La Ribera . It is bounded by today's streets and squares, Carrer de la Fusina , Carrer Comercial , Carrer de la Ribera , and Plaça Comercial . Before the current development and the construction of the market building in 1871, the Passeig de l'Esplanada , which was established as a park in 1802 and is considered to be the first public park in Barcelona, was located in this area . Although the location of the destroyed district was known, the state of preservation of the remains and the exact location of the streets and houses were largely unknown until the beginning of the archaeological interventions in 2001.
The story of the destruction of the district
The Barcelona of the late 17th and early 18th centuries was characterized by a significant improvement in the economic situation. At the same time it had fallen victim to acts of war. During the Nine Years War ( War of the Palatinate Succession) it suffered attacks by the French fleet in July 1691 and June 1697, which affected some coastal houses, but above all the Santa Clara Monastery (also known as Monestir de Sant Benet de Montserrat). During the War of the Spanish Succession , Barcelona suffered attacks in 1705 and 1706 in the area of the El Raval district . A gap was broken in the city wall. However, the most devastating events for the city were the aftermath of the siege of 1714 with thousands of bombs that hit the entire city and in particular the La Ribera neighborhood .
After the surrender of the city and the occupation of houses and palaces by the war winners, they decided to build a military citadel, which was not only used to protect the city militarily. The main purpose of this citadel was to make the local population compliant. The Flemish military engineer Joris Prosper Van Verboom commissioned the construction of a pentagonal citadel with large dimensions, comparable to that of Turin, Antwerp or Parma. This citadel was intended to strengthen the defense of the most vulnerable area of the city, the area of the Portal Nou and the Monastery of Santa Clara, on which Verboom himself had recommended the attack. At the same time, this fortress was intended to dominate the populous neighborhoods of the city.
In order to realize this fortress structure, an indispensable safety zone, the so-called esplanade or the free field of fire, had to be created. The urban planning was changed. A large part of the old urban area of the La Ribera district, including the Santa Clara monastery, was demolished on the orders of King Philip V of Anjou . The residents were evicted. On March 1, 1716, the foundation stone of this king's citadel was laid. From March 1717, 38 streets and 1,016 houses in the La Ribera district were demolished. Work on the citadel was not completed until January 25, 1725, the year of the Treaty of Vienna .
The history of the excavation
General
From 1991 onwards, the first archaeological interventions and restorations had taken place on parts of the building in the La Ribera district that had come from the 18th century. The city of Barcelona had launched an archaeological project to secure the historical building structure. A cultural center was planned to be set up in the historic El Born market hall . In 2000, the city council of Barcelona awarded this historic market building from the 19th century the protection level B. During restoration and renovation work, initially on the point foundations of this market building, remnants of the previous district from the early 18th century were found in 2001. The degree of preservation of these ruins was so exceptional that the city immediately took extensive protective measures. She developed a museum concept for the presentation of these archaeological finds. According to a project by the city's municipal archaeological service, preventive interventions and action points were identified that had to be worked through before an archaeological cultural center was set up on site. The excavations carried out in the following years culminated in 2006 with the designation of the site as a cultural asset of national interest by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the decision to build a museum of symbolic importance. The major challenge was the task of reconciling the interests of a general cultural center with the interests of an archaeological-scientific museum at a major excavation site.
The aim of the archaeological excavations carried out from 2007 onwards was the elucidation of the structure of the "submerged district" as well as the rehabilitation, consolidation and restoration of the inherited building parts and infrastructure in the area under the market hall. First of all, the excavations proposed by the technicians of the archaeological service were carried out. In 2007, an 80 m² area between the Mercat del Born and the outbuilding was uncovered on today's Carrer Comercial No 5 to clarify the stratigraphy . As a result, 37 archaeological action points were processed.
The excavations
The archaeological research on the streets of this early modern district of Barcelona ( Abella , Maia , Xucles , Bonayre , Joc de la Pelota , Ventres , Na Rodés ) provided additional information on the historical findings. The technical solutions for drainage with sewage networks and septic tanks were documented. In the Born district there were different types of streets next to each other: streets paved or paved with stone floors, in the eastern part of the area there were also streets with tamped soil. These street types indicated the importance of the street and the houses in it.
An interesting point of the excavation was the discovery of a very well preserved private bridge at the north end of Carrer Ventres . So far this is the only bridge of a private estate documented in an excavation in Barcelona.
Since the intervention of 2001, the eastern end of the excavation than was fishing zone known to the Carrers Bonaire , Abella , Maia and Xucles belonged. Here is a not exactly dated island of houses that dates from before the 15th century.
Description of the site
The excavation site Mercat del Born covers 8100 m², which is located in the underground of the old market hall. At just under three percent, this area represents only a small part of the total 295,705 m², which was cleared by demolition for the construction of the citadel and the associated esplanade , the security zone of the fortress.
The location and orientation of the market hall in 1871 determined the nature of the remains and the condition in which they were preserved. The level of the soil in this area was originally much lower than that of the neighboring Paseo del Born . Since the military wanted to raise this level of height, it was not necessary to completely demolish the buildings. The remaining buildings and infrastructure were simply filled in. This fact is the basis of the overall excellent condition of the ruins. Another lucky coincidence was the type of metal construction of the market hall chosen by the architect of the market hall Fontseré, which only required a few point foundations under the pillars. In this way, harmful effects on the archaeological underground were minimized. The orientation of the market hall, which happened by chance with regard to the archaeological subsurface, offers a comprehensive overview of the professional and private activities of the city in the early 18th century. The longest part of the rectangular section includes businesses from the industrial and craft sector on the west side of the Rec Comtal irrigation canal . In the middle area there were houses and palaces of wealthy people, guild houses and leisure facilities. In the eastern part of the site was the maritime quarter, also known as the fishing quarter, with simpler and smaller houses.
The excavation and viewing site includes a segment of the Rec Comtal, fragments of eight streets and the entire Bornet Square. The width of the streets ranges from 2.4 meters for Carrer de Micó in the maritime district to 2.6 and 2.8 meters for Carrers de Corders de Viola and del Ventres . The streets of the residential area are four meters wide and more: Carrer de Xucles 4 meters, Carrer de Bonaire 5.8 meters. In the central part of the site is the Plaça del Bornet , a privileged area with a width of 10.6 meters, in the central area about 15 meters, at the intersection with Carrer de Gensana about 12.6 meters. The bridge over the Rec Comtal, also known as the Pont de la Carnisseria del Pla d'en Llull and the Na Rodés bridge, is between 5.5 and 9.5 meters wide. The usual height of the building was one and also two storeys, i.e. H. the houses were over 10 meters high. This increased the feeling of narrow streets for residents.
The excavation site contains a total of 42 houses and eleven house fragments in which 77 families with a total of 323 people lived. In his work La ciutat del Born, the Catalan architect and historian Albert García Espuche documented the excavation site with every single property including the former owners and residents.
literature
- enciclopèdia.cat: El Born Center de Cultura i Memòria. Retrieved October 31, 2018 (Catalan).
- Albert García Espuche: La ciutat del Born . Ed .: Ajuntament de Barcelona. 3. Edition. Barcelona 2010, ISBN 978-84-9850-275-6 .
- Antoni Fernández: Memòria de la Intervenció arqueològica a l'antic Mercat del Born amb motiu de la construcció d'un nou Center Cultural. 2006, accessed October 31, 2018 (Catalan).
Web links
- El Born Cultura i Memoria (Barcelona): El jaciment del Born. Retrieved November 1, 2018 (Catalan).
- mein-barcelona.com: Antic Mercat del Born. Archived from the original on March 11, 2020 ; accessed on October 31, 2018 .