Mercado de Colón
Modernist iron-and-brick market hall with sculpted animal reliefs and hand-laid ceramic mosaics.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Mercado de Colon in Valencia opens with a puzzle: how a produce hall planned for twelve months, begun in 1914 by architect Francisco Mora Berenguer, ended up taking twenty-eight years to finish. It follows Mora's refusal to settle for a plain market shed, bringing in sculptor Ricardo Tarrega to carve the building's own merchandise into its brick facades, and ceramicist Lluis Bru to lay Roman-style mosaics using Gaudi's trencadis technique. It also traces the market's decline, sitting empty and decaying for decades once the produce trade moved elsewhere. Look up at the parabolic brick arches before stepping inside.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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