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cana

For the French unit, see canne. For the Italian unit, see canna.

1

Chapel of Santa Lucia, Barcelona

Photo courtesy Moebius

A cana standard built into a corner of the church of Santa Lucia in Barcelona. The church was built in 1268.

In Spain, primarily Catalonia, at least as early as the 13ᵗʰ – 19ᵗʰ centuries, a unit of length, varying with locality.

Province	Nomenclature, Equivalents	Length in meters¹
Baleares	media cana (“half cana”)	0.782
Barcelona	cana (= 2 media cana = 8 palmos = 32 quartos²)	1.555
Gerona	cana	1.559
Lérida	media cana	0.778
Tarragona	media cana	0.780

Alsina, Feliu and Marquet provide a lengthy list of local values (page 130), all in the ranges 1.555 – 1.698 meters or 1.928 – 1.982 m, the high range only for measuring cloth.

1. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico.
Equivalencias entre las Pesas y Medidas Usadas Antiguamente en las Diversas Provincias de España y las Legales del Sistema Métrico-Decimal.
Publicadas de Real Orden.
Madrid: Imprenta de la Dirección General del Instituto Geográfica y Estadístico, 1886.

Pages 14, 15, 25, 33, 49.

2. Doursther, page 82.

Doursther says, “d'aprés une measure authentique, vérifée à la préfecture de Marseille, en 1829,” about 1.5520 meters.

2

For the unit of land area, see cana de rey.