Church and Monastery of San Vicente de la Roqueta

Located on Calle San Vicente Mártir, next to the old Via Augusta, the Church and Monastery of San Vicente de la Roqueta (current Parish Church of Christ the King), can be considered the cradle of Christianity in Valencia.

According to tradition, in this place built on a mound of rock, the diacon Vicente was martyred at the beginning of the fourth century and this would also be the place where he was buried. Next to the tomb of the martyr a church was built to venerate his remains.

This was one of the few churches that remained open for worship during the period of Arab domination, becoming the cathedral of the Mozarabic community in Valencia, outside the city walls. The Christians formed a neighborhood around the church that prevented its demise.
With the conquest of Valencia in the thirteenth century, King James I ordered the construction of a temple, a monastery and a hospital in this place. During the eighteenth century it underwent great transformations and the Carlist wars of the nineteenth century demolished the tower, part of the church and the convent.

After a fire in 1936, at the end of the Civil War it passed into the hands of the Augustinian order, who sold the building to a private company to build houses until, before this happened, it became the property of the Arzobispado. Of the whole complex, today only the church and the monastery remain standing.

The temple preserves two late Romanesque gates. The so-called north door or Vicentine cover, of half a point poured, shows us in its capitals different scenes of the martyrdom of St. Vincent.

The monastery has a cloister from the early eighteenth century, with Doric pilasters on pedestals and semicircular arches on the ground floor. It is in the process of being restored.
Listed as an Asset of Local Relevance. Declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument.

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