Torres de Quart – Temple

Our route starts in the Botanical neighborhood, which takes its name from the Botanical Garden of Valencia, whose origins date back to the sixteenth century although it was put into operation in the early years of the nineteenth century. Its collection houses around three thousand botanical species from all continents.

Just in front of the Botanical Garden we find the Church of San Miguel y San Sebastián, one of the few examples of Italian classicism in Valencia, which was completed in 1739. Listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest.

Continuing along Calle Quart towards the center, visitors will see the Torres de Quart, Gothic towers of the fifteenth century, one of the gates of the old medieval wall of Valencia that still stands today. Crossing Guillem de Castro Street we will find ourselves at the foot of this superb monument, one of the most emblematic of our city. Pay attention to the traces of the projectiles that the War of Independence left on its façade.

Leaving the Torres de Quart behind, we enter the Barrio del Carmen in Valencia, perhaps the most popular district of the city and an obligatory reference in terms of its leisure, culture and gastronomy offer. Very close to the towers, the Church of Santa Ursula, built in the seventeenth century with a brick façade, is just one more of the heritage treasures that can be admired in the historic center of Valencia. Inside, it preserves baroque decoration of the seventeenth century and Valencian tiles of the eighteenth century.

Calle Quart leads to Plaça del Tossal, one of the neighbourhood’s classic squares that serves as a good distributor to different destinations along our route. After the demolition of the Islamic wall, this square acquired the functions of an urban hub, joining Calle Quart, Calle Caballeros, Bolsería and Calle Alto.

In the Tossal Gallery, located in this same square, you can admire archaeological remains of a tower of the Islamic wall of the twelfth century. And very close to there, on Calle Cavallers 36 and 38, less than a minute walk we find other vestiges of its layout, part of the nearby and two towers.

The route of Calle Caballeros, one of the oldest in the city, is recommended for its historical and artistic weight, apart from its wide range of leisure and gastronomy. In this street were concentrated at the time the palaces of the most notable Valencian families. The Palaces of Calle Caballeros are distributed mainly along the numbers 14-18 (Sancho Buildings, XIX Century), 20-22 (Palace of the Marquises of Malferit, S.xv-XIX), 26 (Palace of the Marquises of Mercader, S. XV-XVIII), 28 (Palace of the Counts of Alpont, S. XV-XVIII), 33 (Palacio dels Centelles or Daia Nueva, S. XV), 36 (Palacio de los Fernández de Córdoba, S.xv-XIX) and 43 (Palacio dels Queixal or dels Trenor, S.xv-XIX).

At number 35 of this street we find the Church of San Nicolás, another jewel of Valencian heritage that stands out for its splendid combination of Gothic architecture of the fifteenth century with the baroque decoration of the seventeenth century.

We return to the Plaza del Tossal and go down Calle Bolseria to end up in the Plaza del Mercado, where we find the Silk Exchange, from the fifteenth century, emblematic monument of our historic center, key piece of Valencian civil Gothic, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

And a little further, the Central Market, a spectacular building of the most visited in our city, a jewel of modernist architecture built in the early twentieth years. Its impressive wrought iron structure, ceramics and stained glass windows bear witness to the daily hustle and bustle between merchants and customers in the largest European space dedicated to the sale of fresh produce.

At the beginning of Calle Caballeros, almost reaching the Plaza de la Virgen, is the Palace of the Generalitat Valenciana, the seat of the government of the Valencian Community. A building of medieval origin, Valencian Gothic style with Renaissance touches built in the fifteenth century. Subsequently, it has suffered several interventions, the last of them in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Less than a minute away we find the Marqués de la Scala Palace, from the sixteenth century, located in the neighboring Plaza de Manises. Due to its subsequent transformations, visitors will notice its combination of Valencian Gothic with elements of the Renaissance and Baroque.

In the same square is the Palace of Batlia, headquarters of the Provincial Council of Valencia, which has its origins in the fifteenth century. Declared a National Historic Monument.

Nearby, on Calle Serrans, the Tower of Sant Bartolomé Apostol is the only surviving vestige of the church of the same name, one of the ten founding churches of the city after the conquest of James I.

Continuing along Serrans Street, 3 minutes walk, one of the most representative monuments of this city: the Torres de Serranos, built in the fourteenth century, next to those of Quart the only two fortified gates of the medieval wall that preserves the city. Today you can visit them and from the highest part you can contemplate excellent views of Valencia.

The Plaza de la Virgen is located in the Barrio de la Seu, within the district of Ciutat Vella. It is one of the most typical and busiest pedestrian squares in Valencia, which gathers around it several of the most important buildings of the city: the Cathedral, the Palace of the Generalitat and the Basilica of the Virgen de los Desamparados.

The basilica was built in the seventeenth century, in a first autumn-Renaissance building that was later completed according to the guidelines of the Baroque style. Of note are the frescoes of the dome, by Antonio Palomino, the camarin of the virgin and its stained glass windows. A place with a lot of emotional burden for thousands of Valencians, since there is the patron saint of the city, popularly known as the “hunchback”.

At number 1 of the Plaza de la Virgen is the Costume House, neoclassical style of the eighteenth century, which was used as a meeting point for the magistrates of the Water Court before the trials that were held at its door.

In front of this house is the Door of the Apostles of the Cathedral of Valencia, the western door of this religious monument, also popularly known as “La Seu”, which began to be built in the thirteenth century. In its architectural style the Valencian Gothic stands out, although there are also elements of Romanesque, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical. Headquarters of the Archbishopric of Valencia.

The Benicarló Palace or Borgia Palace, a Gothic and Renaissance style building, is just a couple of minutes’ walk from Plaza de la Virgen in the direction of the old Turia riverbed. Today it is the headquarters of the Valencian Courts.

Almost opposite we find the Church of San Lorenzo, a religious building that was one of the first Valencian churches erected around 1238, the date of the conquest. Later it was rebuilt in the seventeenth century following the main lines of the Baroque.

Turning a little from Calle Navellos by that of the Franciscans, we arrive at the Plaza de Nules to discover the Palacio de los Catalán de Valeriola, original of the fifteenth century, built in civil Gothic style, which throughout its history has undergone numerous reforms and today is used for administrative uses by the Generalitat.

We continue touring the surroundings of the Plaza de la Virgen and the Cathedral. 4 minutes walk from our last destination, through Samaniego streets towards Calle Farina, is the Palace of the Marquis of Campo, a residential building of the seventeenth century that underwent transformations in the twentieth century. Today it is the headquarters of the Museum of the City of Valencia. Is.

Nearby we have the Almoina Archaeological Center, an archaeological museum inaugurated in 2007, which stands on the ancient Roman square of Décimo Junio Bruto, on the same place where the Roman city was founded. In this underground space you can admire remains of Roman, Visigoth and Arab Valencia.

Leaving the Almoina in 3 minutes we reach the Palau Escrivá, original construction of the fifteenth century modified in the eighteenth century. To highlight the Gothic door of the entrance. It is located in Plaza San Luis Bertrán.

At number 1 of this same square we find the Almudín, a construction of the fourteenth century, Valencian Gothic style, which served as a wheat warehouse and occupies the space of an old Muslim Ksar. Today it is used as an exhibition center and museum.

We dismantled something from the path traveled by Calle Farina to visit the Archaeological Crypt of the Prison of San Vicente Mártir, an old Visigoth funerary chapel on which James I ordered another chapel dedicated to Saint Vincent the Martyr to be built, since in this place was one of the prisons in which the saint was locked up in the fourth century. One of the places dedicated to his memory in the city.

Going back up Calle Farina and then Calle Salvador, we will only need a couple of minutes to reach the Church of the Saviour, located on Calle de los Trinitaris, which began to be built in the thirteenth century and has had successive subsequent works. To highlight its Romanesque bell tower of the XIV century, one of the oldest in the city.

The last point of this section of our route is the Church of Sant Esteban, which we arrive following by the Trinitarians Street and going down the Tosalet Street, built in the fifteenth century on an old mosque and reformed to alleviate its deterioration in the seventeenth century.

We leave the Church of San Esteban and head towards the Turia Garden to reach the Palace and Church of the Temple, known for having formerly belonged to the Order of the Templars. Architectural ensemble formed by the convent, the school and the church built in the time of Carlos III on the ruins of an old monastery following the neoclassical style. Today it serves as the headquarters of the central government delegation.
Behind the Palacio del Tempñe we have the Palace of the Marquis of Caro, another neoclassical building of the nineteenth century, currently transformed into a luxury hotel and restaurant after different reforms. It houses another part of the Islamic wall that appeared during the restoration work.

Very close to the temple we find a monument of the late nineteenth century dedicated to the painter José de Ribera, “El Spagnoletto”, one of the great masters of our painting. Made by a young Mariano Benlliure, it is the first great work of the Valencian sculptor, awarded for its preciousness at the National Exhibition of Madrid in 1887.

Then, following Calle Pintor López we will go to the Trinidad Bridge, one of the oldest in the city, built in the early years of the fifteenth century and rebuilt in the following century, due to a flood. It gets its name because it is located near the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, which we find when crossing the bridge on the other side of the old riverbed. A building founded in the thirteenth century that served as a hospital and that combines Valencian Gothic with Baroque.

Following the margin of the old river from Trinitat Street through San Pio V we arrive at the Royal Gardens, popularly known by the Valencians as the Jardins de Vivers or simply Los Vivers, an urban public park conditioned for public use that has its origin in the orchards of the pleasure palace of the kings of the Taifa of Valencia.
Inside is the Museum of Natural Sciences of Valencia, a rationalist building of the twentieth century, which houses one of the best collections of fossils in the world.