The METM Logo

Our logo evokes one of the first professional meetings to take place in Europe—the council of builders convened first in 1386 and again in 1416 by the Bishop of Gerona to discuss how to vault the widest nave in Europe at the time—23 meters across. A single nave was an innovation in the 14th century, preferred for the better acoustics it gave. In this case, however, it had to match a wide choir, already built with a standard three-aisle nave in mind.

Before agreeing to a plan submitted for a single nave, the bishop decided that its soundness should be debated by knowledgeable experts. He therefore brought them together twice as peers at his own expense—surely one of the earliest instances of sponsorship of a professional meeting as Europe emerged from the Middle Ages.

The logo shows letters and symbols tumbling over the floor plan of the Cathedral of Gerona and its cloister—falling as masonry surely would have without the builders’ shared knowledge of how to manage weight and thrust in large construction projects.

The color is a tone of ochre common throughout the Mediterranean.