Continuing the series, if you find yourself in the Middle Ages and are looking to find a nice place for your market, you’ll probably locate it on a river or a creek. Easy way to bring in the goods and the people – and easy way to float away the trash and the refuse.
You would never guess it by this photo taken in Muhlouse, Alsace, but here I am standing on a market built over a canal:
Outside you’ll find the outdoor market, a vegetable market, as you can see here. And that yellow building in the distance is the indoor market, the Marché de Canal Couvert de Muhlouse. To provide that I’m really over a canal, here’s that same yellow market from the rear:
And here is a view looking down the canal, away from the market:
If you look closely you’ll see that it’s not just a natural creek but rather it’s lined with cut stones. Muhlouse sits at the intersection of several shipping canals, so most of the small creeks in the area have been long since under active management.