Monumentos archivo | Page 5 of 18

Valencia Shipyard

Built at the end of the fourteenth century for the manufacture, storage and repair of vessels, they played a decisive role in the commercial and maritime prosperity of medieval Valencia.

Declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument in 1949, they constitute an Asset of Cultural Interest. Currently, only the core of the primitive complex remains, a vast rectangular building with an approximate surface area of 3,500 m².

Gothic building with five parallel naves supported by diaphragm arches built in tile. On each of them rests a simple roof of tiles with double water. They were built at the end of the fourteenth century as a shipyard, arsenal and warehouse of navigation effects of the city.

At the time of its construction they were located at the northern end of Vilanova del Grau, a little separated from it and surrounded by a wall and a small moat. The complex was completed with several outdoor courtyards in which there were rafts for “mixing” wood and jugs for storage. Originally, the ends of the ships did not have to be blinded to allow ships and galleys to enter and exit. The shipyards stood a few meters from the coast on the sand of the beach, a location that today is difficult to imagine due to the existence of the port and, above all, because of the buildings that stand on the front line covering the access to the sea.

Palace of the Generalitat

The Palau de la Generalitat Valenciana is a late Gothic style building in Valencia, built in 1421. Located in the historic center of the city, between Calle Caballeros, Calle de la Batlia and Plaza de Manises, very close to Plaza de la Virgen.

Since that year the building was the House of the Diputación del General del Reino de Valencia. Then, from the middle of the eighteenth century it was the headquarters of the Royal Audience and since 1923 of the Provincial Council. Currently, it houses the Valencian regional government.

Construction began with the central body of the building, organized in three floors, with rectangular windows on the first floor, triple windows with columns on the main floor, where the meeting room was located, and a gallery in the upper area.

In 1518, the construction was extended with a large Renaissance tower, which overlooks the Plaza de la Virgen, mostly by Joan Corbera, which has classical pediments over the windows and Renaissance decoration. The upper balustrade is from the late sixteenth century, built in imitation of the Escorial.

Temple Monastery

The Temple Monastery is located in the Plaza del Temple in Valencia. The Church and the Palace of the Temple form a complex made up of the convent, school and church of the Order of Montesa in Valencia.

The monument owes its name to the order of the Knights Templar, to which it belonged. It was built between 1761 and 1770 by order of Carlos III, after an earthquake that destroyed the previous monastery.

The building, designed by the architect Miguel Fernández, presents a neoclassical style strongly influenced by his teacher Francesco Sabatini, the architect of King Carlos III.

The sobriety of the wide façade designed with triangular pediments over the adinteled windows of the main floor stands out. For its part, the interior courtyard is also sober and robust, with stone arcades for the lower part and balconies on the upper floors.

The church is located on the west side of the building. It has a single nave with side chapels and a dome over the transept. The façade is flanked by two towers between which is a large triangular pediment. Welcomed by huge pilasters we find the entrance doors and windows. Above the central entrance is the shield with the royal arms of Carlos III, and below it the semi-spherical hollow that illuminates the interior of the choir. The glazed tile coatings of the towers and dome are of Valencian tradition.

Customs

The development enjoyed by the port of Valencia during the early twentieth century, motivated the construction of buildings for the management of port traffic, which were remarkable for their architectural quality.

Of all of them, the Customs building stands out, delivered by the architect Enrique Viedma in 1930, although the work was originally designed by Pedro García Farias.

The responsibility of creating a building with such an important functional and architectural value fell to Viedma after the death of García Farias and especially after having completed his great work of architecture in Valencia, Finca Roja.

At first, Customs was used for port offices and a general reform of the entire urban environment was proposed, to jointly house a rich architectural heritage, which already had creations such as the Clock Building or the Public Varadero.

Old Benicarló Palace

The Cortes Valencianes constitute the legislative body of the Generalitat Valenciana. The headquarters they currently use for their functions is the well-known Benicarló Palace, also called the Borgia Palace, which is located on Sant Llorenç street.

The current seat of the Valencian Parliament actually dates from the late fifteenth century. The fact that it is known as the Borgia Palace is precisely because the Borgia family, Duke and Duchess of Gandia, used this building as their personal residence.

This building previously served as the School of Art and Grammar of Valencia, since 1408.

The palace that was built had a Gothic style, of which the portal with a semicircular arch is still preserved, as well as the “loggia” of windows that can be seen on the top floor.

The Borgia Palace was neglected since its abandonment by the successors of the Dukes of Gandia towards the middle of the eighteenth century. It continued to deteriorate little by little until the mid-nineteenth century, when it was acquired by the Pujals family, in order to take advantage of its facilities to turn it into a silk spinning factory.

Church of Sant Joan de la Creu

The Church of San Juan de la Cruz has also been known for a long time among Valencians as the Parish Church of San Andrés. It is located in Calle Poeta Querol and is considered both an Asset of Cultural Interest and a National Historic-Artistic Monument.

Historically it is of great importance because it was one of the first churches founded after the reconquest of James I, where a mosque was formerly erected.

However, the specific date of its current configuration is between 1602 and 1615, with the symbolic act of the laying of the first stone by the Patriarch and Archbishop of Valencia Juan de Ribera.

The building consists of a church with a single nave, with chapels located between the buttresses and a polygonal head.

The Church of Sant Joan de la Creu stands out on its main façade especially in the door, where most of the decorative elements are placed. Interestingly, the rest is a tiled wall on stone plinth with a balustrade with balls.

Formerly two small chapels were also opened on the sides. One of his arcosolios can still be seen today.

Valencia City Council

Until 1864, Valencia City Council was located in the Casa de la Ciutat in front of Plaza de la Virgen. However, the poor facilities motivated its transfer to the Casa de l’Ensenyament in front of Plaza de Isabel II, which is currently known as Plaza del Ayuntamiento.

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.

Arab wall

The Islamic Wall of Valencia was a defensive wall, built in the eleventh century around the old city of Valencia, capital of the Taifa of Valencia, in the time of its king Abd al-Aziz.

It was built in concrete tapial filled with medium stones and included several semicircular towers made of regular masonry, located between them 26 meters apart, which each included a vaulted room for defense functions. The average width of the wall was 2.25 meters.

From the twelfth century the city was extended and the wall incorporated square towers and other defensive elements as reinforced gates.

Almudín

The Almudín dates from the early fourteenth century. It is a building built on the Muslim Ksar, which can be visited in the Plaza de San Luis Bertrán, famous above all for its fountain built in Xàbia stone.

The original building served as storage and wheat sales space. The city had to be responsible for its provisioning, safekeeping and subsequent distribution. It soon proved that its dimensions were insufficient and during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it underwent new extensions.

Of its exterior architecture highlights the porch raised during the first half of the sixteenth century, as well as the decorative presence of the coats of arms of the city and the always imposing doorway with a semicircular arch.

Palacio de los Catalán de Valeriola

The Palacio de los Catalán de Valeriola is located in Plaza de Nules in Valencia. It is a building corresponding to the civil Gothic of the Crown of Aragon, built on houses of Islamic origin in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

It has subsequently been renovated on several occasions. Its current appearance corresponds to the neoclassical reconstruction of the eighteenth century, although its last integral rehabilitation is from 2006.

It is also known as the Palau dels Escofet, which was the last family to own. His coat of arms is the one that can be seen on the cover, on the lintel of the door, made in cantería.

It has a central interior courtyard outdoors, with cobblestone floor, typical of Valencian Gothic palaces, which is actually a neo-Gothic element of a reform of the nineteenth century on the original Gothic floor.

Ships of Ribes

The Naves de Ribes are located on Calle Filipinas next to the Camino Viejo de Malilla (Philippine crossing with Literat Azorín). It is a set of seven buildings, an example of railway architecture, whose land occupies a large area of around 20,000 square meters.