Admiral’s House

The Casa del Almirante is located between Calle Palau and Calle Baños del Almirante in Valencia, in the historic centre of the city. It is a Gothic building that, despite its reforms of the eighteenth century and its rehabilitation of the twentieth century, maintains a marked character of Valencian civil Gothic.

James I handed over the plot on which the house was later built to the Admiral of Aragon, hence its name. However, the heraldic shield that appears above the adintelada door belongs to the lineages of Palafox and Cardona, who were one of its later owners. The original façade has lost its decoration with fresco paintings over time.

The building is organized around an open interior patio, divided into basement, ground floor, mezzanine, main floor and upper floor.

We will find many original elements of the fifteenth century inside the palace. For example, the central courtyard with the well and the staircase that leads to the first floor where we can admire its gallery of pointed windows.

Also noteworthy is the Gothic coffered with heraldic motifs, which was recovered during the restoration of the building to turn it into the headquarters of the Ministry of Finance. It is the most important private Gothic style work preserved in Valencia.

The Admiral’s Palace was built on Roman ruins located underground, which were accidentally discovered during one of the restorations of the building in the 80s. These ruins, remains of a Roman street, are in the process of being recovered for public display.

To the left of the façade of the palace is accessed through a narrow alley to the Baños del Almirante, a Mudejar building built between 1313 and 1320 for public baths according to the tradition of the Arab steam baths, with three rooms: cold, warm and hot, delimited by columns and an entrance hall. They were used until the twentieth century. It is a separate building from the palace, although they receive the same name.

It is listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest. In 1944 it was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument.

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