La Casa Lonja de Mercaderes in Seville

Ever since Seville was founded, its geographic location as a secure inland port has helped build its reputation as a major commercial and trading hub in the Iberian Peninsula.

Seville channeled Andalusia's internal trade and became a strategic port in Mediterranean and Filipino shipping routes, with Cádiz and El Puerto de Santa María as key ports for unloading and distributing goods.

This flow of trade boosted its maritime reputation from 1492 and particularly from 1503, when the House of Trade (Casa de la Contratación) was created. By doing so, the Crown's mercantile operations in the Americas were monopolized in Seville.

The European exploration and colonization of the Americas provided Seville with new horizons across the Atlantic, attracting masses of foreign merchants who settled and created permanent colonies in the city, with the Genoese being the most prominent of these populations.

By the middle of the century, the merchants who were trading from their American voyages were searching for a permanent building where they could conduct business. Before then they had been operating in the area around the nearby cathedral. And so the Merchants' Exchange House (Casa Lonja de Mercaderes) was built.

Its design, the merchants' desire for quick turnaround work, as well as its abandonment, reoccupation, and refurbishment so that other institutions could use it, are all noted in the documentation of these institutions. These documents held in the General Archive of the Indies (Archivo General de Indias) allow us to delve into the building's life.

Let's take a look at how it all began.

The Guild of Merchants (Consulado de Cargadores a Indias) was founded in 1543, following the model of the Burgos Merchant Guild. It would become the institution that advocated for the needs of the merchants that had settled in the city.

The high volume of trading activity in the middle of the century and the lack of space in which to conduct their business forced merchants to carry out their transactions on the steps of Seville Cathedral, which had been the traditional location for this type of activity since the Middle Ages.

The Guild of Merchants (Consulado de Cargadores a Indias) was founded in 1543, following the model of the Burgos Merchant Guild. It would become the institution that advocated for the needs of the merchants that had settled in the city.

The high volume of trading activity in the middle of the century and the lack of space in which to conduct their business forced merchants to carry out their transactions on the steps of Seville Cathedral, which had been the traditional location for this type of activity since the Middle Ages.

It took a few years more for Juan de Herrera's project to begin, and finally, in 1584, when Juan de Minjares was appointed construction director, work began on the building's foundation.

Two years later, construction was fully underway: the brick walls of the facade were carved, the patio pillars were erected, the first floor was completed (in 1593), and the vaults of the north nave were raised (in 1598).

However, due to a lack of budget, construction stalled between 1604 and 1609.

Meanwhile, merchants continued to occupy the cathedral steps, so as an interim solution until the building was finished, the building and its surroundings were adapted so the merchants could work inside it without having to use the cathedral grounds for their business.

In 1607, an order was given to place an awning in the patio to provide shelter from the intense summer heat, and, subsequently, the area between the new building and the cathedral was chained off to restrict the space.

After Minjares passed away, Alonso de Vandelvira, from Jaén, took over the work, completing the first floor and the facade facing the Alcázar.

Vandelvira stopped work on the building after it was suspended in 1604 due to the cash shortage, during which time he made other commitments.

In 1609, he was replaced by Miguel de Zumárraga, interim master builder of Seville Cathedral, until his death in 1630. The building was almost completed during this time.

Zumárraga introduced a series of elements that were not in the original project, such as building stone roofs instead of wooden.

The work on the Exchange House was completed in 1634 by Pedro Sánchez Falconete, who is credited with strengthening the vaulted ceiling system, designing the front facade, and adding the obelisks at each corner of the building.

After the House of Commerce was relocated to Cádiz in 1717, followed by the Merchant Guild, the building became semi-abandoned.

All that remained in the Exchange House was the Merchant Council (Diputación de Comercio), which represented the Guild.

In 1722, the Ecclesiastical Council took up certain areas to store materials while they built the cathedral's organ, and shortly after, the City Council asked the Guild for rooms where it could store the city's supply of grain.

Around this time, part of the upper floor also began to be used as workers' quarters and, later, as homes for their orphans, widows, or relatives.

However, Royal Decree of September 21, 1784 ordered that the upper floor of the building be vacated so that it could be renovated into the General Archive of the Indies (Archivo General de Indias), and the Merchant Council was informed that the first floor was to be taken over by the Maritime and Terrestrial Consulate, which had just been founded in Seville.

The building was refurbished in order to house both institutions: the recently established New Consulate of Seville on the first floor and the General Archive of the Indies, responsible for compiling all of the documentation relating to Spain's conquests overseas, on the upper floor.

The remodeling work for the Archive was overseen by architect Lucas Cintora, who meticulously planned the refurbishment in two phases.

The first step was to remove any elements that, thanks to its many occupants over time, had covered or distorted the original designs.

The second phase aimed to adapt the rooms on the upper floor for the Archive's needs.

To do this, he employed other professionals including Blas Molner, who carved shelving for the documents out of mahogany and cedar from Havana, and Francisco Roales for the rest of the furnishings.

Cintora also carried out significant remodeling on the staircase to the upper floor; his designs included plans and cross-sections of the staircase to illustrate the magnitude of his work.

The beginning of the 21st century brought about a complete restoration and recovery of the building: removing added elements, opening up previously boarded-up areas, and removing moisture that was disintegrating the stone due to capillary action.

This work aimed to restore the building to its original structure based around the central patio and interior galleries, without too many elements dividing up the rooms inside.

To do this, the perimeter was excavated, and special care was given to the archeological ruins found there, such as the remains of buildings from the Islamic period that featured latticework ornamentation pained in ochre.

The restoration involved the documentation being stored in three large, double-height repositories on the first floor of the building, the opening of the three outdoor galleries on the upper floor, and the restoration of the mahogany shelves designed by Blas Molner.

Seville's Casa Lonja: object of desire for merchants, symbol of an Atlantic Seville, dream of the regeneration of Charles III's overseas empire, and bastion of research. The past, present, and future of a timeless building.