El present article sintetitza l?estudi historicoartístic de les restes medievals
trobades al jaciment arqueològic del subsòl del número 3 del carrer Sant Honorat de
Barcelona, avui seu del Departament de la Presidència de la Generalitat de Catalunya,
realitzat l?any 2009. Les estratigrafies més importants d?aquest excepcional jaciment
?juntament amb les d?època tardoromana? corresponen a una casa palau situada a
l?alfòndec del call Major de Barcelona, de la qual es conserven bona part dels fonaments
i diverses sitges de grans proporcions construïdes a mitjan segle xiii.
A partir de les dades facilitades per l?arqueologia, de la bibliografia existent i de
documentació arxivística parcialment inèdita, s?ha pogut reconstruir la història de la
finca entre els segles xiv i xix, però sobretot en un període clau per a la història de la
ciutat: el pogrom de 1391, la desaparició de l?aljama barcelonina i l?establiment de les
elits urbanes cristianes a l?antic call. En aquell moment, la casa passà de mans del darrer
propietari jueu, el financer Massot Avengenà, al primer estadant cristià, el jurista
Pere de Rajadell.Documenting archaeology: Massot Avengenà?s house in the corn
exchange in Barcelona?s call Major (number 3, Carrer de Sant
Honorat). The article outlines the historical and artistic study carried out in 2009 on
the medieval remains found at the archaeological site in the subsoil of number 3, Carrer
Sant Honorat in Barcelona, where the Government of Catalonia?s Presidential Office
is currently located. This exceptional site?s most important stratigraphies (alongside
those from the late Roman period) correspond to a house/palace located in the
corn exchange in Barcelona?s call Major (the largest section of the city?s medieval Jewish
quarter). A significant portion of the building?s foundations have been preserved,
along with a number of large silos constructed in the mid-13th century.
The information obtained through archaeological work and the existing bibliography
and partially unpublished archive documents have made it possible to reconstruct
the history of the property between the 14th and 19th centuries, particularly during a
key period in the city?s past, encompassing the pogrom of 1391, the disappearance of
Barcelona?s aljama (a Spanish term of Arabic origin used in old official documents to
designate self-governing communities of Moors and Jews living under Spanish rule)
and the settling of the urban Christian elite in the old Jewish quarter. During this period,
the house ceased to belong to the financier Massot Avengenà, its last Jewish
owner, and became the property of the jurist Pere de Rajadell, its first Christian resident