španjolski

Estructura arquitectonica dels mercats de la Mediterrania

The markets preserve the memory of places, especially those of the Mediterranean coasts. Even in our times, all ways of trading are present, from the most primitive type of selling and buying goods to the most modern ones. People still trade in open air, on earth or on improvised structures like tables, stone benches, stands whether covered or not, from motor caravans or temporary booths etc. But also in many places we still find present all the historical layers, some of them still in function like Medieval type of markets in town loggias, in Croatian towns of Trogir and Cres. The two classical forms – the open place market or covered bazar, and the shop-lined street are already mentioned 2.000 B.C in two allusions in the Gilgamesh epic.("the market street of Ur" and the battle with Enkidu in the "market of the land"). Y on the other hand is a Summerian ideogram for market, as the place on the traffic roads junction. (Mumford). The Mediterranean basin, as the centre of trade in antiquity and the Middle Ages, still boasts most of the former historical layers of trading embodied in its architectural structures. The ancient Greek layer is still visible in the ruins of former great cities whether planned or organic. The earliest records show that the temple area was besides religious function also a kind of a market place. But, in ancient Greece the separation of sacral from secular functions was present almost from the beginning. The agora - primarily a meeting place soon took the market functions. On this open space various buildings were scattered randomely with, in its middle, temporary stands and stalls on the market day. With the growing economy and commerce the agora functions were further expanded and the agora became the most important element of the city. With time the agora was enclosed and separated from the city by a long colonnaded portico - the stoa, offering protection from weather - sun and rain. The stoa architecturally became very important in the Hellenistic period. The Athens Agora, as the example of the first phase, was until 6th century B.C., as the Athens city itself, irregular in plan. It was just an open area without architectural articulation, its different uses not spatially differentiated. But it seems that already at that time the Panatheneical Alley divided diagonally the Agora into two parts: the political and religious in its south-western part and commercial in its northern-eastern part(Bazaar). But all the free spaces were also taken for trade and business activities in these pre-Classical times. Many shops, stores, and craft-shops took the ground floors of residential buildings alongside streets surrounding the Ceramic Agora. During Pisistrates times the Agora is becoming spatially organised. It was framed on the north side by two parallel streets, later with Stoa Poikile and Hermes Stoa. But only with the erection of the South Stoa, parallel with those two, one could talk about spatial systematisation.By construction of a new South and Middle Stoa, and specially of a monumental two-storey stoa, built by Atalos II, the Agora obtained trapezoidical shape with a row of opulent shops on the ground floor and the first floor of the Atalos Stoa, taking its eastern part.The Agora s area of over 2, 5ha could contain all the full-fledged Athenians. In Greek city planning during the 5th century B.C. an orthogonal grid became normaly used usually connected with Hippodamus from Miletus.This democratically neutral framework had at its centre the agora surrounded by the stoa. The classical Greek town planning examples are to be found in Asia Minor, in the short coastal belt of the western part of todays Turkey, especially in Priene and Miletus. The rational geometrical grid plan of these new towns had ample public areas and public buildings, amongst which were also shops and markets. In Pergamon , the new market-place-the Lower Agora, from the beginning of the 2nd century, is a rectangle measuring 64x34 meters surrounded by stoas on its four sides.These three-storeyed Doric order collonades had two aisles, shops taking area in the rear aisle. The public square side was two-storeyed while the part on the sloping side boasted three floors. The Ephesus Commercial Agora was set up in the Hellenistic times. It measured 11o sq.m. and was enclosed on all four sides by stoas. It was enlarged in the reigns of Augustus, Nero (two-storeyed double colonade in Doric order) and Caracalla. In Priene the Agora was built in the 3rd century B.C. and covered almost two blocks(75, 63x35, 40 meters). It was situated almost in the very centre of town, in this way confirming its importance as a focus of democratic life. The Doric style stoas were built on its three sides. On the west side there was a row of shops. As the land in the south stoa sloped down there was a basement under it. Only its western and eastern parts were taken by shops while the centre contained a large space divided in two by eight columns. There was also a separate market-place for foodstuffs, west of the Agora, where vegetables, fruit, meat, cereals and clothing were sold. Priene, in C. Norberg Schulz words» offers an illustration how the Greek city consisted of qualitatively different spatial domains, each of which corresponded to a particular function and meaning» . The South Agora of Miletos("the jewel of Ionia" as Herodotus called it) was set up in Hellenistic times as an enormous colonnaded courtyard of 164x196m. Stoas were surrounding the agora on all four sides. The Doric style colonnades were built in three separate free-standing blocks. The East Stoa was composed of 39 pairs of shops arranged back-to-back in such a way that half the shops were entered from the east and the other half from the west, from the Agora courtyard. Shops opening to the Agora had storage at their back. 19 shops on the south side of the South-Western Stoa were arranged so that some faced outwards and some inwards. The West Agora, the most recent of the city market places, was probably erected in late Hellenistic times. In the Roman times in larger towns certain activities are put together as a result of spontaneous development or due to general or municipal regulations.So, in Rome the names of the streets tell us about this concentration (Vicus frumentarius, Vicus salarius etc).Larger shops, markets and warehouses also are concentrated in certain districts, and in greater towns the town squares are also specialized. So, in Rome there is Forum Boarum (Butchers square), Forum holitorum (Green square), Forum Vinarium (Wine square), Forum Pistorum (Corn square), etc. But the most magnificent and unique example of the antique construction is the famous Trajan Market in Rome, attributed to Apolodor from Damascus. The Market(still standing) next to the monumental Trajan's Forum, built on the steep slopes of the Qurinal, five-storey high, of an area of 30.000 sq.m, contained a large market hall and 160 individual shops. The main vaulted market hall is two-storey high and had shops along the walls, on both floors. The upper shops are reached over galleries. Standing across the Mediterrenean in the Middle Ages Christian and Islamic world developed each its own way. The early Middle Ages economy in Europe was autarchic and self-sufficient. In towns the trade consisted of a natural exchange of products. The right to hold weekly, monthly and yearly market days(in 10th and 11th centuries) was just the legalisation of such exchanges. The first permanent yearly markets were connected with religious manifestations. The first market-places were irregular and unarticulated spaces in the suburbs, next to the city gates, covered in market days by stalls, stands, etc. With time these spaces were shaped into the squares becoming an essential part of the town structure. Slowly they started to differentiate and functionally specialize, the permanent buildings are constructed. At the same time, even sometimes before, in the towns themselves the special spaces are formed for trading. Again under church auspices and in its immediate surroundings there is a line of shops and workshops leading to the church. Some of them to this day keep their Medieval names(according to the kind of craft or trade). Frequently these streets would be arcaded to provide weather protection (the glass as protection coming into use only in 17th century). But, the most privileged spaces for their location was next to the church or the town hall. Sometimes the town hall served also as a market-hall. At the beginning it was a free standing, usually two-storeyed building, containing two halls the lower one for finer products needing better protection than that offered by market stalls. The sea trade even during the most troubled times was still going on. The intensive trade with the east under the auspices of the Bysantium and later the Arabs resulted in the material, cultural and other prosperity of the Mediterranean ports. In the 9th c. in Italy towns started to develop again, becoming centers of trade alongside the most important sea-trade ports Venice, Genova and Pisa., followed by Marseilles, Narbonne, Barcelona, Valencia and Dubrovnik. The development of market space in the Mediterranean toook in relation to the general development a slightly different colouring. In the tradition of the antique agora the main square in the Mediterranean is more a public space for social life and everyday meeting of its citiziens than a market place. In seaside places many market and business activities are gouped next to the port, in the great ports these are whole town districts specialized according to the kind of trading. (Medieval and Rennaissance zoning of Venice and Genova, for example). In Venice the Piazza San Marco as early as 12th century was filled with market stalls and started to take shape.But gradually the original market functions were abandoned and transfered to other parishes(6 of them), each campo or square representing a small-scale version of the Piazza San Marco. In Florence at the end of the 13th and during 14th century the functions of market and retail commerce stretched out around the Mercato Vecchio, the Mercato Nuovo and the Mercato del Grano (later Orsanmichele), along the streets and in any small widening available. The entire city was a workshop and market. Many small artisan shops used the streets as an extension of their working spaces and the shops (botega indicating both shop and workshop) spilled out into the street or the plaza with awnings and counters in masonry or wood for displaying their goods Across the Mediterranean sea stands another world, that of the Islamic cities, with its architectural landscape of mosques, minarets, bazars, with its characteristic architectural features, specially domes, also present in its commercial buildings, adding the next historical layer to the ancient Greek ruins(as the Byzantine commercial buildings did not survive). Islamic city is a compact, enclosed whole, closed to the desert, to the dry and hot climate. This enclosement and concentration to the inside is more expressed than in European Medieval towns.The town center is taken by a mosque. Near is the bazar, the market centre with the shops lining the streets or forming bazar sections, or an arasta or a bedestans (or souks). The covered bazars and arastas deserve special consideration because of their architectural features (the classification is owed to prof. Mustafa Cezar book). Bazars in Islamic cities are not only place for exchange of goods but an area where some manufacturing activities are centered. They were first located near the city walls, later to take a central place within the city. Covered bazars first appeared in the cities of the Middle East where the climate made people build spaces protected from the heat and sun. They are found in old trade centers like Alexandria, Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo etc. The origins of the conventional type of bazar consisting of a long covered street or several short covered streets may be traced to the Kaysariya, a commercial building in Islamic and Arab countries, more a warehouse than a bazar, a complex consisting of covered streets around an open courtyard. Even today in Morocco commercial areas separated from the other quarters of the city by walls with special gates are called Kaysariya which are actually bazars where cloth, carpets and jewelery are sold. In the same country a group of covered or open-roofed shops arranged around a courtyard and in clothing trade are also called Kaysariya. One of the earliest still functioning covered bazars is in Aleppo, a former important trade centre, famous as an old Moslem city, becoming from the 16th century an important Ottoman trading city. Its origins date to 13th century and it was later developing on the same site. The Bazar roof is covered with domes and vaults. Its central part consists of two very long streets, and several shorter rows of streets. The additional buildings of hans were built during the renovation. The Grand Bazar (Suk.u Sultani) had according to Evliya Celebi 5700 shops. Gates used to be shut at sundown and candles lighted inside. Most of the hans and bazars have lead-covered roofs so they are not affected by heat, their interiors are cool even in summer. The famous Istanbul Central Bazar was turned into a covered one in 1701. and was the first of its kind within Turkish territories. This decision was connected with fire prevention. The new bazar was built of stone and covered with a vaulted roof. Following the 1894 earthquake the Bazar was completely repaired. There are 61 streets, of different width, and 18 gates, eight of them large. At one street junction a wide place with columns used to serve for noon praying. Formerly the names of the streets indicated the kind of trade taking place in them. The bazar streets are generally barrel vaulted. Brick pillars are mostly square 45x45cm, some are round. Windows are placed along the sides of the vaulted roofs. In the Fez old core, winding streets are lined with shops and craft-workshops-souks, specialized bazars and Kaysariya in the middle of the city next to the mosques of Karaviyin and Mullay Idris. The arasta is a name used for a series of shops lining both sides of the street. The bazar sections were built of them. Those built in wood have disappeared while those in stone or brick survived. They are usually covered with vaulted roofs or domes. Most arasta streets are also covered with barrel vaults. The finest building of this group in Istanbul is the Misir Carsisi constructed in a classical style. Built of the stone and brick layers, its central street is arched and covered with a vaulted roof, raised above the walls. Each cell has a window placed between two domes. The longer street has 46 and shorter 36 shops, with six at their junction. Alltogether 88 shops in the interior and another 16 shops on the outside. The Selimiye arasta in Edirne was built as a part of the Selimiye Mosque complex. The long north-south street and the short west section are together 2oo m long with shops facing one another. The arasta street is covered with a barrel vaulted roof higher than the roof of the shops and the arasta receives light from the windows along the sides of the vaulted roof.The walls are built of one layer of stone and two layers of brick Arches and vaults are in brick while entrances are built in cut stone. The most beautiful part is the dome above the prayer square, at the junction of the main axis supported by two columns and pointed arches. The dome rests on pendantives. Already in the 11th and 12th century certain trades and crafts were grouped together in certain parts of cities. As cloth represented a valuable trade article, in important Seljuk and Egyptian cities the cloth markets were first to develop. The name for this special part of a bazar was bedesten (the original words being bezistan or bezzazistan). Although their construction as a special kind of buildings could be traced to the end of 13th century they became trade centers of the Ottoman period cities, especially in 15th and 16th century. Bedesten is a covered, vaulted market-hall building whose vaults (cross, spherical or semi-circular) rest on pillars or columns. The middle of the floor plan is taken by a wider nave lined on both sides with shops, each covered by a dome pierced by window openings for illumination. Their plan and spatial disposition could be either basilical or domed. The basilica plan is usually 3-aisled, the middle aisle wider for reasons of communication and illumination. The movement is in longitudinal direction. The domed one is a rectangle divided by a system of pillars and arches into squares, each covered by a cupola. Shops are lined on the outer walls or around strong pillars in the centre. The shoppers movement is both longitudinal and transversal, or circular. The cell type bedestens are to be found in Bursa Tire, Istanbul, and the finest of them in Edirne. The Edirne bedesten has 56 shops along four sides, constructed of brick and well-hewn stone courses, with windows placed along the walls, each under the dome, displaying six different decorative motives on window arches. The Salonica bedesten is an example with outside shops. The arasta-bedestens are in plan like arastas ie. shops lining the street. The bedestens with arastas are esentially architectural units of both a bedesten and a bazar section in the form of an arasta. The most striking of this group is Mahmut Pasha bedesten in Ankara - today converted into a museum of Anatolian civilization. The tetragonal bedesten was on all 4 sides surrounded by shops. It is covered by 10 domes arranged in two rows, with 4 pillars inside, with 4 gates in the centre of walls opening to surrounding arastas (with 3 gates). The main bedesten walls are built of rubble and cut stone, pointed in red Khorasan mortar. Above the shops, on the upper part of the wall, there are windows. The arasta shops and the middle street roofs are covered in barrel vaults. The floor bedestens are not independent buildings. The Bergama bedesten, built in 16th or in 17th century, is an example of a single space bedesten. Near Pergamon Lower Agora it contributes that next historical layer. It is a rectangular building covered with 6 cupolas with two supporting pillars. The walls and cupolas are in brick. Back to the other side of the Mediterranean the growth of population in expanding towns and in sea ports resulted in the 19th century with a growing need for larger, more organized and permanent market spaces. The large covered market-halls, satisfying these needs, started to be built (Florence, Valencia etc). They established a new spatial image and added a final historical layer, that of "the glass and steel age" heralded by the famous London Crystal Pallace (1850-51.). This article will present two Croatian examples of the market-halls in the former most important Austro-Hungarian ports – Rijeka and Pula. Pula, on the Istrian coast, became the main naval port of the Austrian fleet in 1850. From a small town of only 1106 inhabitants in 1851 it became a large town with 59000 inhabitants in 1910, 16903 of them employed in the army services. This increase in population resulted in great building activities and Pula became a real urban centre with 4.240 registered buildings in 1910. As part of this building activities, in the town centre, a large covered market hall was built in 1903., next to the open-air market. The market-hall was renovated in 1997. The longitudinal, basilica-type building, has a main entrance and two side entrances. Horizontally it is divided in the massive base and the upper, completely transparent part. The ground floor level contains a fish market. The upper level with the main market - hall is reached from the outside via main winding staircase and the side three flight stairs leading to the first floor covered deck. The upper double-height single-space market is covered by a very slender round-arched trussed structure built by Officine de Witkowitz and designed by engineer Jacopo Ludovico Munz. The detailing is Secession in style. The complete transparency of the upper level-the main market hall is achieved by completely glazed front and side facades and the clerestory roof. Rijeka, the main export port of Hungary, a multi-national city undergoing intense economic expansion was turning in 19th century from a typical Mediterrenean seaport into a worldwide industrial and shipping centre. The urban concept of the rapidly growing town and its port zone was defined in the 1843 by the Josef Bainville plan. The orthogonal street plan was taken from a previous plan with addition of new blocks on the infill land. Standing in the axis of a new residential quarter built on the landfill and forming even today a firm backbone of spatial authority are the 3 pavillions of the Rijeka Central Market. The first to be built was the Fish Market pavillion in 1866 but, after it stopped satisfying modern needs, the decision was made to build a new one, built only in 1914. The architect of the new market, Carlo Pergoli, tried to keep the memory of the old pavillion so he designed a Neo-Romanesque romantic building but with new interior spatial relationships and completely decorated in the spirit of the Secession, the prevailing new style. In the 1870s after the neighbourghing central park was developed and the construction of the planned blocks was intensified it was decided to build, in place of the outdoor market, the covered market pavillions. Designs for the two pavillions were made in 1880 in the Rijeka Technical Office run at the time by Isidor Vauchnig. They were opened in 1881. They are positioned on the longitudinal axis with the Fish market. The single-space market area(at later stage a gallery was incorporated) is entered through two brick gable fronts. Their trussed barrel vault structure is characteristic of the contemporary iron structures used elsewhere in similar buildings. The long side walls are glazed above the high, massive base. The latticed glazing is between thin cast iron columns with segmented arched lintels giving the impression of a completely glazed wall. In contrast the entrance facade is monumental and Historicistic in style. The arched entrance portal featured a lace-like wrought iron door. The attic cornice is richly profiled. The sides are horizontally broken into a segmented base and the upper part consisting of two recessed parts between pilasters, the corner front and side parts richly decorated with painted terracotta reliefs of fruit and vegetables. And to conclude, while the market architecture, as any other architecture, is a physical expression of the spirit of times or different cultures it has always kept, up to this century, the traditional physical contact between the buyer and the seller. Is there in this century going to be any other except a virtual market-place?

mercats de la Mediterrania

ISBN 84-9785-048-3(Lunwerg)