Public space invasion in the late medieval Gerona

Abstract

In the 14th century, Gerona was looking for and in fact found a new law system, namely thanks to king concessions, which allowed the city to increase following a certain order. This need was justified in a way by private owners actions in public areas and even because of the clash of interests between different groups representing power (clergy or feudal lords). Frequently, literature shows that the different responses were due to both asthetic reasons and civil security without taking into acount the reason of space property. In fact, the town couldn’t act as the owner of space since it belonged to the crown. We’ll show through the analysis of literature how, during the 14th century, the city took the juridical authonomy in urbanistic decissions which remeted in what the city is nowadays.