The Guilds

Small rooms were added on top of the Guild houses for lower classes.  This can be seen by the small window on the top of the building



Typical Guild House



View of Santa Maria del Mar

To get a better idea of the history of Barcelona and how its industry and economy developed, we took a field study through El Born region and saw where the guilds were.  El Born is located on the right of Via Laitana if you are traveling toward IES from Port Vell.  Via Laitana was built in 1981.  Its purpose was to be the host of Barcelona’s financial district.  Today, you can see the many financial institutions, union and political buildings there.  The old guilds are located in the small alleyways behind these financial and political buildings.  Each alleyway or street was home to its own guild.  For example, Placa de la Llana translates to Plaza of the Wool.  This was the location where wool was prepared and sold at market price. 

                The guild houses were built very simply, most of them in the late 13^th century.  The basement of the guild house had a big window in the front.  The basement room was the workshop and all of the workers lived above it.  Next to the large window, there was a small door with stairs that led to the upper levels and in some cases to gardens and terraces behind the building.  The guilds were trades of industry that had very strict rules.  In order to become a member of a guild, you first had to become an apprentice and spend a period of time learning your trade.  For example, in order to become a shoemaker in the Barcelona guild, you had to be an apprentice for three years.  The ironsmith was one of the most important guilds because it was the guild of industry – iron was the most important material of the time.  We also learned that the guilds set all of the prices for the products.  Another interesting thing that I learned about the guilds were the rooms that would add to the top floor if they needed more room – see picture.