The fish market of the Royal Chapel of Granada

The Royal Chapel's fish market in Granada was built by the Granada City Council in 1518, and its current function is to serve as an entrance and reception area for tourists who come to visit the monument. In its beginnings, it was an open space dedicated to trade and banking. It was a contracting house and bank for the silk business in Granada. This lasted until the 19th century when it was acquired by the Church and incorporated into the Royal Chapel within the urban environment of the Cathedral.

Would you like to know more about the commodities exchange, as well as its façade and coffered ceilings? We tell you all about it in this article!

The Royal Chapel's fish market

As we have already seen, the Capilla Real fish market was used for trade. This was due to the demand of the merchants, mainly Genoese, who requested the construction of a building where they could carry out their contracts.

Initially it was planned as a single-storey, free-standing building. After years of negotiations, it was concluded that it would be paid for by the City Council, which in exchange could erect a first floor for its use.

Alfacar stone was used for its construction. The coats of arms of the city can be seen on the lower arches, while the flamboyant parapets of the upper arches are adorned with the coat of arms of the Catholic Monarchs. The building has a purely Gothic appearance that is contaminated by ornamental essays in the new ‘Roman’ style.

The building of the Royal Chapel's marketplace rises above the angle formed by the Chapel and the Tabernacle on the steps (the remains of which still remain). It is laid out in an enormous rectangular bay and is divided into two storeys, which are exteriorised in two superimposed galleries. Upstairs we find semicircular arches on torsa columns decorated with balls. The ground floor is decorated with mural paintings: the portraits of the founding kings and the Surrender of Granada.

It is worth mentioning that a few years ago, after a period of restoration, the commodities exchange was able to recover its 16th century coats of arms. One of them was the coat of arms of Charles I of Spain and V of Germany, still without the double-headed eagle. This restoration was completed with lighting at a suitable temperature to favour the chromatic conservation.

The main doorway and its coffered ceilings
 

The façade of the main doorway of the Royal Chapel of Granada was built in 1521, and its work is attributed to García de Pradas. It is lintelled with elegant balustraded columns and has a peculiar triangular fifomorphic finial.

Above the frieze there is an inscription that can still be read in Gothic characters that reads: ‘...Don Antonio de la Cueva Señor de la dorada Granada mandó hacer’ (Don Antonio de la Cueva, Lord of the golden Granada, ordered to make it).

On the other hand, the coffered ceilings are of great interest because of the solutions adopted for the covering of both floors.

On the lower floor, we can see a coffered ceiling by Francisco Hernández. It is of the purest classicism, configured on the basis of a latticed pattern of octagonal coffers with a chamfered overflow. The upper floor is covered by a rectangular framework and eight-pointed at the ends, with a corbelled coffered ceiling with a loop of eight, leaving towards the centre two breasts prepared to receive the muqarnas pineapples that were left unmade.

Would you like to come and discover the history of the Royal Chapel of Granada, as well as its fish market from a closer view? From our website you can buy your ticket to the monument and even buy a combined ticket and get great discounts.

Buy your ticket online to the Royal Chapel of Granada.