Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat

The monumental structures of the old Roman city of Barcino shares many similarities with the Catalan buildings of today.  As one can expect differences do occur but the influence of roman design is still very prevalent in today's Catalan buildings.  Not only in their construction but in the layout of the city as well as the uses of such monumental structures.  The most similar structure between the old Roman city of Barcino and current Catalan buildings is the construction and use of the Forum.  The forum was strategically placed in the center of old Barcino to serve as an area in which people could conduct public meetings.  Many of these meetings were political however they were not restricted to political meetings.  In Barcelona today Placa Sant Jaume serves as what the Romans referred to as the forum and it was purposefully constructed on top of the old Roman forum.  

One of the more obvious similarities between the old Roman city of Barcino and more modern buildings in Barcelona present today are the ways in which walls are constructed.  Most of the buildings of old Barcino were created using stones that where mined from Montjuic.  These stones where then held together using an old form of mortar, creating walls to help protect the city.
 This first image is an example of a wall that was built in the old Roman city of Barcino that is now underground and can be found in the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat.  This second image is an image of what was once a more modern city wall built to protect the city of Barcelona.


As you can see the style of masonry used to build both of these protective and very important walls is very similar despite the difference in time.  













One of the more interesting aspects of construction during Old Roman Barcino was the construction of the sewage systems and their strategically placed influence on old washing facilities.  The picture to the right is an image of a public urinal.  Citizens would urinate into these slots and the urine would then run through the wall and into the washing areas.  Back in the Old Roman city of Barcino washing areas would use the urine to help bleach and clean their clothes. 

Another very interesting aspect of the Old Roman Barcino was the use of public baths.  Although not all baths were public many were.  A typical bath would consist of a bathing area, both hot and room temperature, as well as an exercise area.  The private baths often consisted of both hot and cold bathing areas, massage areas, spas, and exercise areas.

This image helps depict a rough idea of what a cold bath would look like.  These cold baths could be either gender specific or unisex.  These old Roman bathing areas can be compared to sporting clubs in todays world. 

Another interesting influence on modern Catalan buildings was the layout of the Domus.  A Domus would be referred to in modern times as a mansion or house of the upper class.  Like modern day Catalan mansions these structures where constructed using stones and often had mosaics of the family crest or religious references. 

 The masters or the family would often live on the main floor while the servants and slaves would live on the upper floors in much smaller living spaces.  This is similar to the workshops of the guilds that I will discuss in another blog post.

At first Barcino was a city of polytheism.  However as catholicism was born and began to grow in the Mediterranean it slowly shifted toward a city of Monotheism.  A lot of this had to do with the success at which the catholic church was spreading its beliefs and powers across the Mediterranean.  This made it hard to adopt any religious practice other then the Monotheistic religion of catholicism.
    















As previously mentioned, it is still very common to see roman architectural similarities in Catalan buildings today.  One of the more interesting similarities is the use of very detailed stone carving.  In the two images above one can see the use of very detailed stone carvings.  The image on the left is on a pillar used to support a building in the Old Roman City of Barcino and the image on the right is on the under carriage of what was once a walkway in more recent times.  The image on the right can be found as one enters the old jewish area known as El Call.  

Also the use of arcs is very prevalent in both old Barcino and more recent Catalan structures.  This is because the roads had to be both wide and high enough for carriages to pass through them.
Another similarity that can be found in the different time periods of construction is the usage of open door ways on the outside of shops.  In both old Roman Barcino and present day Catalan buildings one can find stores that have open air entryways, especially in markets and skilled craftsman shops, these can also be found in older buildings that have more recently been converted into bars.

Although their is lots of interesting information to be found in the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat I found the domestic objects of these ancient roman times to be the most interesting.  Maybe it is my own weakness, or undivine knowledge, for gambling that influenced my interest in the fact that gambling was very present in the ancient times of old Barcino.  Like many people still do today, the use of dice where very common on the gambling grounds.  Often these dice were carved from ivory.  Another very interesting object that is found in the museum is the tools used for fishing in during these ancient Roman times.

The above objects are images of a magnitude of different sized hooks used for fishing as well as old weights used to bring the hook to the proper depths of the ocean to catch fish.  Aside from these domestic objects images of mosaics, cosmetic bottles, laundry detergents such as ash, wine, and color pastels from plants and fruits can all be found in the museum.  During these times looks where very important to the people and so cosmetics where often stored in what at one point in time where considered very nice porcelain carrying devices.

Still observable in Catalan culture today, wine played a large role in society.  It was often made in large vats and could be argued as one of the more advanced constructions of its time. 

The image above is a ruin of what was once a massive wine brewing cellar.  The structures that almost appear to look like hatched dinosaur eggs where the vats that the wine would ferment in.  During these times wine was bot ha very social and a very religious aspect of life.  Citizens of all ages would consume wine and it was not uncommon for children to partake in drinking wine.  Your average citizen would drink around 210-260 liters a year and 1/2-3/4 a liter a day.  However unlike todays wine the wine of these times was watered down.  This was because of catholic influence and religious purposes. Like many wine labels today, wine labels back then would describe who made the wine and where they made the wine.