The Silk Exchange gargoyles

This time, don't look at the doorway of the Silk Exchange: raise your eyes to the top of the walls. Twenty-eight stone gargoyles jut out from them and, if you look closely, you will see that many are anything but pious.

1An indecent bestiary

There are monsters and fantastic animals, musicians, characters baring their backsides, naked figures and openly erotic scenes. They are, above all, spouts to throw off rainwater, but the stonemasons who worked under Pere Compte at the end of the fifteenth century took the opportunity to carve a whole catalogue of vices, jokes and desires into them. Around fifteen are on the trading hall, seven on the Consulate of the Sea and six on the tower.

2What were they trying to say?

No document survives to explain their programme. Specialists suggest several readings: a moral warning about the sins lurking outside that temple of trade, a satire of street life or, quite simply, workshop humour. Some authors point out that fifteenth-century Valencia had one of the largest and best-known brothels in Europe, the Partit, and believe these figures speak of that reality.

Inside, a Latin inscription preaches honesty to the merchants; outside, up high, the gargoyles show exactly the opposite.

The truth is that the Middle Ages did not separate the sacred from the grotesque as sharply as we do: many cathedrals in Europe have figures just as daring.

3What to look for

• The corner gargoyles, the easiest to make out from the street.
• The crown-shaped battlements, which give the building the air of a castle.
• The small reliefs on the doorway, with more curious figures at eye level.