The Hortensia Herrero Art Centre is a unique space that brings together the private collection of Hortensia Herrero, patron and vice-president of the foundation that bears her name, in the old Palau de Valeriola, an emblematic building from the 17th century.
The collection includes more than 50 contemporary artists of international renown. The first presentation is made up of more than 100 works by artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Anish Kapoor, George Baselitz, Mat Collishaw, Tony Cragg and Andreas Gursky, as well as works created specifically for the enclaves of the Art Centre that dialogue with it, making it more special.
The Hortensia Herrero Art Centre is located on Carrer de la Mar, in the heart of the city of Valencia.
The The Municipal Historical Museum is located in the part of the Town Hall House in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento that corresponds to the old Casa de Enseñanza, founded by Archbishop Majoral in the eighteenth century, and in the part where the Church of Santa Rosa de Lima was located.
The first room shows five plans that show the evolution of the city. The most famous of these is the one made by Father Tosca in 1704, but those of Mancelli of 1608 and Montero de Espinosa of 1853 are also exhibited.
In the second room, City Views, a total of 46 engravings from the municipal collection are exhibited, covering a chronological period from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century.
The Sala dels Furs contains murals by Ramón Stolz that represent, among other motifs, the first monarchs of the Kingdom and also the neo-Gothic showcase in which the first incunabulum of the Book of Furs is exhibited, whose manuscript is kept in the Municipal Archive.
Finally, the Sala Foral, located in the Church of Santa Rosa and decorated with paintings by José Vergara, houses some of the symbols and relics that are a reference in the history of Valencia, almost all of them from the Old House of the City: the Royal Flag, the Pendó de la Conquista, the Trophy of the Conquest, the Espada del Rey D. Jaime, the painting of La Inmaculada and the Juries of Espinosa, the reliquary of Saint George, the Archangel Saint Michael, The Keys of the City, etc.
In 1957 Maria Benlliure Ortiz donated to Valencia City Council the family home where her father, the famous painter Josep Benlliure Gil (Valencia, 1855-1937), lived and worked, together with numerous works of art and interesting objects, leading to the creation of the current house-museum.
The building, built between 1880 and 1883, is an interesting example of housing for the high bourgeoisie of the time, consisting of a three-storey house, garden and painting pavilion.
The main building recreates, on its ground floor, a series of domestic rooms where you can enjoy the genuine furniture of the late nineteenth century, as well as interesting works by renowned artists of the moment such as Sorolla, Muñoz Degrain, Rusiñol , Luna Novicio, Nagy, etc.
The rebuilt chalet of the distinguished Valencian writer, Vicente Blasco Ibanez, nestled in the incomparable setting of the Malvarrosa beach, and converted today into House-Museum, houses his memories, personal objects, and literary works, having been decisive for the existence of this museum the legacy of Mrs. Libertad Blasco-Ibáñez Blasco and Mr. Fernando Llorca Díe, which constitutes the main museum collection of the same.
It consists of three floors (Assembly Hall, Museum and Research Center) and a large garden, which makes the visit even more attractive, for the sensation of placidity and beauty it transmits.
The ground floor, or Room I, is primarily dedicated to the Assembly Hall, where conferences, round tables, film screenings and temporary exhibitions will take place. On the first floor or Room II is installed the Museum, proper, since it contains the portraits and sculptures of Blasco Ibáñez, his wife Doña María Blasco, as well as his children and other very close relatives. Furniture, valuable porcelain, miniatures, collections of prints, documents, photographs, objects as endearing (among many others) as toiletries, party handbags and palmitos of Blasco’s wife and daughter. Memories of the many trips made by the tireless traveler Blasco Ibáñez to almost all countries of the world, still to places unfrequented by exotic and even dangerous for visitors.
In 2001, on the ninety-fifth anniversary of the birth of Concha Piquer (Valencia, 1906- Madrid,1 990), Valencia City Council pays homage to the memory of this distinguished artist by inaugurating a House-Museum, dedicated to her, in the building where she was born on December 8, located at number 23 Ruaya Street, in the heart of the Sagunto neighborhood.
The building was built around 1900 and represents the typical working-class single-family home. With a rectangular surface, it consists of a ground floor and a single floor. Its façade of exposed reddish brick and functional lines is a valuable testimony of the hygienist urbanism of the time of which there are currently few testimonies in the city. The collateral has been incorporated into this house, both currently communicating with each other.
The house articulates, therefore, two houses separated by a central axis, consisting of the access staircase to one and another house, located on the upper floor; being the one on the left that welcomed the birth and first steps of the artist.
Of humble origins, Concha Piquer came to be considered the maximum expression of Spanish song. She stood out as a tonadillera for her great emotion and interpretive expressiveness and was one of the most relevant figures of the cobla, a light song that flourished in Spain from the 40s. The best of its repertoire is linked to the most important creators of the genre, the trio formed by the poet and lyricist Rafael de León, the playwrights Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero and the composer Manuel Quiroga.
The institute was created in 1985 by Professor José María López Piñero, Professor of History of Medicine at the University of Valencia, who was in turn its first director, with the name of Institute of Historical and Documentary Studies on Science. It had the Historical-Medical Library and Museum, and the Centre for Documentation and Information in Biomedicine (directed by Professor of Documentation María Luz Terrada Ferrandis). The objectives of the center They were the study of Spanish and Latin American scientific activity since antiquity, the study of medical systems, the elaboration of bibliographic and documentary repertories, obtaining indicators of scientific and health activity, the creation of databases (including the IME, Spanish Medical Index), the development of medical information systems, the study of scientific terminology and the study of the needs for scientific and medical information.
In 2008 the institute was restructured, concentrating its research activity on the history of medicine and science, integrating the Vicente Peset Llorca Historical-Medical Library and part of the Scientific-Medical Collection of instruments of the University of Valencia, and adopting the current name: López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science. The objective of the remodeling was to provide the center with a new project and scientific identity. This restructuring coincided with the transfer of the centre to its current location in the restored Palau de Cerveró, a historic building owned by the University of Valencia.
In the western part of the city, next to Cabecera Park and a few steps from Bioparc, is this innovative museum, located in a building that was originally the First water tank of the city, one of the best examples of theindustrial architecture of the mid-nineteenth century. A sheet of water runs along the façade of the museum, recalling the primitive function of the building.
After passing through the lobby we find ourselves before a surprising space, formed by a forest of pillars and tiled arcades in which you lose your gaze. From the background we are greeted by Medusa’s enigmatic smile, pointing to the center of a beautiful Roman mosaic discovered in the city. The visit begins with the Time Machine, a technological resource that allows us to know the urban evolution of the city throughout its history. The permanent exhibition exhibits archaeological, artistic and historical collections, combining them with scenes that recreate the past in a dramatized way, creating a harmonious whole.
An unusual way of presenting the story in a close and understandable way, which manages to introduce us into the skin of the characters of the past.
Opened in 1989 with the aim of promoting research and dissemination of twentieth-century art, the IVAM has become in a few years one of the main contemporary art museums on the world scene. The Julio González Center is a new building located on Guillem de Castro street.
The Julio González Center is a modern building, with a forceful façade that highlights the large glazed lobby under a cantilevered canopy. Inside, it has several galleries of sober design so that nothing distracts the attention of the visitor while contemplating the works of art. The museum’s collections cover the main artistic avant-gardes of the twentieth century, from the first steps of abstraction, typographic assembly and photomontage, to European Informalism, Pop Art or New Figuration, without losing sight of the latest trends of the beginning of the new century. In addition, in an underground room you can see a long stretch of the late medieval wall of the city, discovered during the construction of the building.
The Toy Museum of the Polytechnic University of Valencia contains a large part of the traditional toy industry of the Valencian Community and is the only one installed in a University, so its cultural value is added didactic and research values.
Its visit allows adults to enjoy childhood nostalgia, and children or young people to instruct them in what was the playful childhood of their elders, without neglecting the analysis of the influence that different materials and techniques have exerted on toys over time.
The route of the museum includes a main hall, the corridors of the ground floor and second floor of the School of Design Engineering. You can observe the different themes of the exhibition showcases, where visitors can reflect on the leisure, historical, social, cultural and technological values that every toy transmits.
The site of L’Almoina and the excavations carried out by the Valencia City Council since 1985, constitute a true historical and urban anthology of what our city has been.
Located next to the Cathedral, it is a large underground space where you can contemplate the most monumental part of the Roman, Visigoth and Arab city.
It is more than a visit to an excavation, as it is an urban history centre of Valencia and is considered one of the best archaeological centres in Europe. It contemplates buildings dating back to the foundation of the city. From this early period a sanctuary of Asclepios, a Horreum and some baths are preserved. It was destroyed by Pompey in 75 BC. C., to be reborn a century later. The curia, the basilica and the portico of the forum are the elements of the Roman Empire. The main roads are the backbone of the visit.
From when Christianity was the guiding element of urban life, the baptistery, an apse linked to the cult of Saint Vincent and several monumental tombs are exhibited.
There are also remains of the Muslim Ksar: a waterwheel, a courtyard with laundry and part of the fortification. After the Christian conquest, the building of L’Almoina was built, which gives its name to the place, intended for the maintenance of the poor.
The Palace of the Marqués de Dosaigües is the product of a radical reform carried out on the old manor house of La Rabassa de Perellós, holders of the Marquisate of Dosaigües, in the 1740s in a pronounced rococo style.
With an irregular quadrangular floor plan, organized around a courtyard and with towers at the corners, its facades rise with a ground floor and two heights, and on one side opens the main door, made in alabaster by Ignacio Vergara on design by Hipólito Rovira.
Presided over by the image of the Virgin Mary, two flows of water descend from it in allusion to the title of the Marquises, with two Atlanteans on the sides symbolizing two rivers, all with an appearance of overflowing voluptuosity. At that time the entire façade was decorated with frescoes by Rovira, but in 1867 the palace underwent a new remodeling -work of José Ferrer-, and in it the paintings disappeared, which were in poor condition due to humidity, being replaced by stucco in gray and pink tones imitating marbles, and in addition the balconies of French flavor were also made, with undulating railings. Inside we can still see today the eighteenth-century floats and the eighteenth-century rooms with their original decoration, recently restored, while the second floor houses the National Museum of Ceramics González Martí, with an important collection of pieces from Antiquity to the most modern designs.
The Sculptural Campus Museum of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, MUCAES UPV, is currently considered one of the largest and best collections of outdoor sculpture existing in Spain, and unique in the Spanish university field.
The Museum, promoted at the end of the 80s, is the result of a planned growth, in which the pieces have been incorporated through different modalities (exchanges, purchases and donations), until achieving, today, a corpus of 79 sculptures by 69 internationally renowned artists, with creation dates ranging from the beginning of the 60s to the present, of various themes and meanings, which interact and integrate harmoniously into the natural environment that surrounds them.
In addition to its cultural value, the Museum has a significant pedagogical and research intention. It offers visits, seminars and workshops given by the authors themselves, and the collection is often used for the development of studies and lines of research.
