Archives: Monumentos

In Calle Caballeros de Valencia we find the Church of San Nicolás de Bari and San Pedro Mártir, usually known by its abbreviated name “Church of San Nicolás”.

This parish church was one of the first to be built after the reconquest and, as is understandable, over the years, different artists have motivated an evolution of the building.

However, what makes the Church of San Nicolás de Bari and San Pedro Mártir special is that the complementation of Gothic and Baroque style, has been achieved with a harmony rare in this type of construction.

As was typical of the churches of the time, that of San Nicolás has a floor plan with a single nave and six chapels between the buttresses, with a polygonal head.

The door of the feet is still maintained, with a marked Gothic character, since it was built in the mid-fifteenth century. Highlights of this cover are the archivolts and the rose window, which is also accompanied by a relief plate alluding to a miracle of Saint Nicholas.

The Parish Church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar y San Lorenzo can be visited in Plaza del Pilar in Valencia. It is an Asset of Cultural Interest and a National Historic-Artistic Monument, which is also known as the Church of El Pilar.

The compound name is due to the fact that in 1903 the parish of San Lorenzo was moved to this church. However, most still refer to it as the Church of the Pillar.

The construction of the Church of El Pilarhas its origin in 1611, when the Dominican monks founded a convent near the hospital of the Poor Innocents. It was not until 1667 that the church was finished and during the eighteenth century a major remodeling was carried out, in order to better adapt it to the Baroque and Rococo style of the time.

In 1964 the convent was finally demolished, so today it is only possible to visit the church. All that remains of the convent is an old room, which is accessible from Plaça del Pilar. It has been attached to the church as the Chapel of the Rosary since the eighteenth century and still maintains parish functions today.

Outside, its wide façade stands out, sober in its general aesthetics, but with an interesting and elaborate access door. It was built in 1730.

In the Plaza del Carmen in Valencia is the Church of the Holy Cross, one of the most important religious constructions in the city, especially for its artistic wealth both inside and outside, especially on the façade.

This building has enjoyed the title of National Historic-Artistic Monument since 1983 and is also considered an Asset of Cultural Interest of the city of Valencia.

The Church of the Holy Cross has a history that adds some confusion to its name. Initially it was known as the Church of the Carmen Convent. Its origin coincides with the arrival of the Carmelites to the city in 1280. Although its name was changed in 1842 when the parish church of the convent of Santa Creu moved to it due to the demolition of the original building, all Valencians have kept the name of Carmen Church.

However, there is a Holy Cross that can be admired presiding over the High Altar, next to altarpieces by the painter José Bellver Delmás that deal with the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the Invention of the Holy Cross.

The Church of the Holy Cross is arranged in a rectangular floor plan, with a nave, with side chapels, barrel vault and diaphragm arches.

But if the interior combines paint and architecture in a sublime way, on the outside we are facing one of the best altarpiece facades in the entire city of Valencia.

This façade, which faces directly to Plaza del Carmen was built in two phases (during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), with 3 bodies.

The first by Gaspar de Sent Martí, who presented 3 Ionic columns on each side of the door, with two niches that in 1961 received sculptures of San Simón Stok and San Juan de la Cruz. Above them, the coat of arms of the Order of Carmen is represented.

The other two bodies, by Juan Bautista Viñes and José Bonet, are more recharged. One of them presents the Virgin of Carmen with the Child held in her arms, next to niches with Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint Magdalene of Pazzis. The other body features another sculpture with St. Joseph and the Child.

Externally also of interest is the bell tower, finished in the eighteenth century, with a square floor plan, mediopunto arch and an upper weather vane known as “the angel of Carmen”. Six bells ring from up there to the expectation of neighbors and tourists from the Valencian neighborhood of El Carmen.

The Church of the Holy Christ of the Saviour is present on Trinitarios Street in Valencia. In addition to being an Asset of Cultural Interest of the city and having been declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument, it also presents a great architectural and sculptural importance.

Of all its elements, undoubtedly the one that stands out the most of all is that of the Christ of the Saviour, present on the main altar and considered the oldest representation of Christ that exists in the city of Valencia.

It is dated to the year 1250 and both its appearance and survival is full of legends, which further increase the expectation it arouses among believers and tourists.

As for the Church of the Holy Christ of the Saviour, it is one of those that were built after the reconquest of James I during the thirteenth century.

Since then it has had several renovations, such as the one that occurred only a century later when the Gothic-style bell tower was preserved (despite the erroneous popular classification of Romanesque).

In Sant Pau street is currently one of the most important educational symbols of the city, the National Institute of Middle Education Lluís Vives.

However, until 1930 it was not known by that name, but by the College of San Pablo, one of the most important educational centers since the seventeenth century, which represents the first Jesuit school that was built in all of Spain.

Future remodeling and rehabilitation have profoundly transformed that construction begun in the mid-sixteenth century, today there are still religious infrastructures, among which the Lluís Vives Chapel stands out.

Currently, the entrance to this chapel can be made both from the interior cloister courtyard, as well as from Sant Pau Street itself, through a neoclassical style door.

The Lluís Vives Chapel has a rectangular floor plan with a single nave and no transept, with rectangular windows with clear Baroque decoration.

It has a total of six chapels between the buttresses and a high choir at the foot that stands out for covering the entire width of the interior of this church.

In the High Altar stands out the gilding that was applied to the wooden altarpiece, a baroque creation by the sculptor Tomás Artigues in the early eighteenth century.

This altarpiece of two bodies and a central niche presents the image of Saint Paul and the Immaculate Conception, coats of arms on the right by Saint Catherine of Alejandria and on the left by Saint Mary Magdalene.

The visitor will find many other pictorial works of religious conception distributed throughout its interior facilities, but of obligatory detail is the Deep Chapel, also known as the Chapel of Communication, located to the left of the presbytery.

This space was built as a sacristy in 1694, but later underwent a complete remodeling. It currently stands out for its vaults and groin vaults, as well as for its decoration with rococo style elements that merge with the rest of the construction, essential contemplation.