Paine pour joie

Lintel of a window opened on a wall of the old Palacio Mayor (Main Palace) where reads the motto "Paine pour joie".

Chivalric motto that identifies the Constable Peter of Portugal (?, 1429 - Granollers, 1466), who was proclaimed King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona in October of 1463, during the uprising against the legitimate King, John II (1458-1479). He ruled between the years 1463 and 1466 in a context of growing enmity against the institutions of the Principality of Catalonia.

They all believed that the unfortunate Peter of Portugal was blessed with the virtues characteristics of the knights and popular heroes. However, his bravery, gracefulness and exquisite sensitivity for music, books and the beauty around him didn't solve neither the hostilities towards the Generalitat nor the ones towards the Catalan Council. That didn't bring him closer to Aragon, Valencia or Sicily, that had supported John II of Aragon. Perhaps fate or the Wheel of Fortune trapped him when he was still very young. In his motto, however, he expressed confidence that the adversities of life are the way to get more satisfaction: pain to obtein joy or "paine pour joie".