A 15th century ship in the middle of Ciutadella. It may seem a dystopian scenario but it is the scenario that can now be seen in the works of the future BSM parking lot on the site of the old Mercat del Peix, in the heart of the future Ciutadella del Coneixement, where Barcelona has made a discovery that seems to be taken from a novel of maritime adventures.
As has already been happening in Laietana or in other works in the city, the works in this site annexed to the Parc de la Ciutadella have discovered a piece of history. In this case, the remains of a ship sunk in the fifteenth century have emerged from more than five meters deep.
A ship 10 meters long (and five centuries of history).
The ship has already been named “Ciutadella I”, and has been documented by the Arqueòlegs.cat team under the direction of archaeologist Santi Palacios and restorer Delia Eguiluz, in an excavation that began in March 2023. The state of conservation of the ship, although fragile, is exceptional if we take into account the centuries it has spent underground.
What has been found is a fragment 10 meters long and more than 3 meters wide, with about thirty quaderns (the ribs of the ship) and seven rows of outer planks. All assembled with wooden pegs and iron nails, following the technique of “skeleton construction” typical of Mediterranean navigation at the time.
Along with it, organic remains such as whole pine cones and hazelnut seeds have been found, which could date back to the same period and are now being studied.
It is not, in fact, the only finding that has been made in the area.In the corner closest to the metro station of the site, an air raid shelter from the Civil War was also found at the beginning of the excavations, which was documented before continuing with the excavations.
Why is there a ship in the Ciutadella?
The location of the ship is not accidental. Beginning in 1439, with the construction of Barcelona’s first artificial docks, the coast began to transform. The old sand bar known as the Tasca disappeared, and the advance of the beach was covering ancient marine spaces. There, among the sediments, this ship was trapped.
It is estimated, in fact, that in the location of the wreck, in a plot at the entrance to the zoo on Wellington Street, there was still sea around the 15th century, so the presence of the ship is not surprising in this sense.
However, archaeologists believe that the ship did not sink where it was found, but that it would have sunk offshore and that the tides or storms would have dragged it to where it is now.
Now, the team of archaeologists is working to correctly catalog and date the remains while awaiting its future location, which is still unknown. First of all, the site will be dismantled to be moved in pieces to the City Council’s facilities, which will allow the wood to be treated to preserve it as well as possible.
This is not the first ship to be found. A few years ago in La Barceloneta the Barceloneta I was found, a ship of Cantabrian origin and from a similar period to the Ciutadella I, but with a different type of construction, the “Atlantic model”. The Ciutadella I, however, is built with the “Mediterranean model”, which allows us to have two clear examples of the main construction styles of the time and gives an idea of the importance of this discovery.