Catí is a tiny village located in the northern part of the Valencia within the county of Els Ports. The town lies in the middle of an extensive hollow nestled between the mountains to the south of Morella and to the right the Salvasoria cliffs. It is surrounded by a landscape peppered with stone buildings, country estates and hermitages. One of the latter is the Our Lady of Avellá sanctuary. Since it was founded in 1252, Catí’s economic base has been subsistence agriculture and livestock, especially sheep for wool, as well as a small cottage industry derived primarily from textiles.

 

Between the 14^th and 15^th centuries, it experienced unprecedented changes, as the export of its wool to Tuscany transformed it into a small-scale emporium with a steep rise in mercantile activities. The effulgence of this period materialised in the sumptuous bourgeois homes of powerful merchants, as well as in the town’s municipal palace.

 

The former town hall is no longer in use and can easily be visited. You can ask for the key at the new town hall located across from it.

 

There are reports that in the mid-14^th century the town council met¹ at La Torre, or home of the delme (tithe collector). This building must have been part of a unit that housed the forn vell (old oven), the delme and the first town hall.²

 

For the location of the new building, the council chose a centrally-located, privileged spot on the main street at the crossroads with Vent street, at the confluence of the delme and other homes owned by the nobility and wealthy merchants. The building was constructed between 1418 and 1437 by master builder Bernat Turó,³ whom documents claim hailed from the small neighbouring town of Traiguera. There are documents showing that this master had also built a bridge in Tortosa. Fortunately, the notes on the construction costs are preserved.

 

The new headquarters of the town council was a symbol of local power. The building housed the lonja or commodities exchange and the main hall on the upper level, which gave it its name; both looked out onto the street. This building was the new core of commerce and the community’s new gathering point. The typological solution used is similar to that of other town halls in the same county, such as those in Morella (the doyen and the oldest), Ares, Forcall, Cintorres, Olocau and Puebla de Benifasar.