CATHEDRAL OF VALENCIA, GENERAL VIEW

                                      

                                                 View of the cathedral from the Turia fountain

     Valencia cathedral, this monumental building constructed over more than four centuries, reflecting the Romanesque, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical styles, according to the fashions of the time and the various extensions and changes to the interior and exterior of the building. It was originally built on the site of the old Muslim main mosque in the mid 13th century. This mosque, in turn, was built on the grounds of the two early Christian cathedrals, the Christian and the Visigothic, between the Plaza de la Almoina and the current cathedral.

                                       

                                                      James I "the Conqueror"

     The conquest of Valencia from the Muslims with the entry of James I, King of the Crown of Aragon, took place in 1238, on October 9th, the feast of Saint Denis, wich is currently the Day of the Valencia Community

                            THE OUTSIDE

     The old muslim mosque was consacreted that same day, and mass was celebrated in a chapel now located outside the cathedral opposite the basilica of the "Virgen de los Desamparados". However the façade of the cathedral was not inmediately modified, construccion of the Romannesque door began about 25 years after the conquest, in 1.262 Anno Domini, on the site that most likely occupied the Qiblah of the muslim mosque

                                           

                                                     Romanesque door of the cathedral

     This doorway, with its splayed archivolts, is particularly interesting for the capitals of the side columns, which narrate episodes from both bible books, Genesis and Exodus, as well as the corbels at the top depicting seven pairs of figures, whom tradition most likely identifies as the faces of couples who were the donors for the door's construction. This door, essentially, has an iconography of biblical exaltation.

                                             

                          Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai. Exterior capital on the right side of the door.



                                     

                            Bertrán and Berenguela, his wife, a pair of faces on the corbels above the door

     This Romanesque-style gate was followed by the construction of the Gothic gate in the mid-14th century on the other side of the transept, on the site where, according to tradition, was the entrance to the old mosque once stood. Outside its entrance, the famous Water Tribunal, one of the oldest legal institutions in the world, meets every Thursday of the year at 12:00 p.m.

                                                     Water Tribunal in the 20th Century

     Perhaps an institution similar to the Water Tribunal existed since Roman times, given the number of irrigation ditches and the resulting problems in the Valencian countryside. Although it is widely believed that it already existed in the Muslim era, it is fairly certain. Because trials are oral and there are no written records of rulings, it is difficult to pinpoint its exact beginnings.

                                          

                               Statues of three Apostles. They are copies, the originals are inside in the Cathedral Museum.

                                          

                                        Prophets, Virgins, and Angels on the Door's Archivolts 

    This doorway has a French Gothic influence, with its representations of the apostles on either side of the door and figures of prophets, virgins, and angels on the archivolts. Representative saints of Valencia include Saint Vincent the Martyr and his bishop, Saint Valero, on one side of the apostles, and Saint Lawrence, who brought the Holy Chalice to Spain, which is kept in the cathedral, and Saint Sixtus, the Pope of Saint Lawrence, on the other.

                                         

                                       Statues of Saint Sixtus and Saint Lawrence on the side of the door.

   Following El Micalet Street, we find the cathedral's main entrance, the Baroque door with an elliptical atrium surrounded by an iron grille, built in the early 18th century.

                                                

                                                         Baroque Gate or "of the Irons".

   This gate is dedicated, apart from the Virgin, to Popes and saints from Valencia or associated with Valencia, it features statues or medallions of Saint Thomas of Villanueva, Saint Peter Pascual, Saint Vincent the Martyr, Saint Lawrence of the Parrilla, and the Borgia Popes Calixtus III and Alexander VI. And at the top of the façade are Saint Vincent the Martyr and Saint Louis Beltran.


                                    

Saint Peter Pascual, a Valencian martyr, Mercedarian, and Bishop of Jaén, martyred in Granada by the Muslims in 1300. A redeemed man is seen presenting him with the bishop's miter.

      A significant element of the Cathedral's exterior is the "Miguelete" bell tower, which began construction in the late 14th century. It has an octagonal floor plan and is as high as its perimeter. Initially, it was built separately from the cathedral, although it was added to it in the 15th century during the expansion of the cathedral's final section.

                                    


                                                 The "Miguelete" from Plaza de La Reina.

     This bell tower was built to replace the old Romanesque bell tower that was located near the Romanesque gate on the narrow Calle de la Barchilla.


                                       

                                        Serliana of the New Work from the Plaza de la Virgen.

     The last exterior element of the cathedral we will discuss is the "new work" or galleries to the left of the Gothic door that open onto the monumental Plaza de la Virgen, overlooking the Turia fountain (with its cornucopia of fertility in the Valencian orchards) and surrounding the eight irrigation ditches, in the shape of a typical Valencian woman, that irrigate Valencia's orchards. 

     

      These semicircular arch-shaped arcades between lintelled openings are examples of the Renaissance construction known as Serlianas in Valencia. They were built in the second half of the 16th century as a "balcony" for viewing the spectacles in the Plaza de la Virgen.

                                                THE INTERIOR 

      The interior of the Christian cathedral began with the ambulatory, the polygonal section behind the apse, with eight apse chapels originally Gothic in design, modified in the Neoclassical style at the end of the 18th century, leaving some evidence of the original Gothic construction in a late 20th-century remodeling. 

      By the 14th century, apart from the ambulatory, the transept (the short arm of the cross, between the Romanesque and Gothic doors) and the first three spaces, of the four that are currently built,  between the columns of the central nave, as well as the first phase of the dome, that octagonal lantern with an admirable structural lightness. The ambulatory was completed with the construction of its second phase at the end of the 14th century. 

      In the dome, about forty meters high, light enters through translucent alabaster windows, going from an octagonal section to a square one with squinches in the corners where the four evangelists are.


                                              

                                                    Holy Chalice with its medieval stand

                                                    

                    Part of the alabaster altarpiece depicting the prophet Elijah ascending to Heaven. 

     In the mid-14th century, a separate room was built for the cathedral Chapter, where the monks meet to discuss community affairs. Today, according to tradition, this room houses the Holy Chalice of the Last Supper, the agate cup used by Christ at the Last Supper with his disciples. 

      Around the mid-15th century, work began on expanding the interior of the cathedral to form the current Baroque doorway, with the addition of the fourth space with the connection of both the Miguelete bell tower and the Chapter House to the interior of the cathedral.

                                  Vault of the 15th-century main altar, "rescued" in the 21st century


                                                     

                                           Detail of one of the Musical Angels on the vault.

      In the second half of the 15th century, a fire occurred, and the vault of the main altar was repainted with musical angels in the Renaissance style by two Italian painters commissioned by the future Valencian Pope Alexander VI, then Bishop of Valencia, Rodrigo de Borja. It was one of the first Renaissance works in the Iberian Peninsula.

                                         

                                                    Main altar altarpiece with closed doors 

     Later, the doors of the cathedral's main altarpiece were painted, also in the Renaissance style, by two painters from La Mancha trained in Leonardo da Vinci's Italy. They depicted scenes from the life of the Virgin and Christ on both the exterior and interior doors, which can be seen once the doors are opened.

      Inside the cathedral, there is an important museum with extraordinary works in various styles, from Gothic to Baroque. Descending into the basement, you can see remains of Roman and Muslim buildings.

     Later, in the 17th century, a further modification was made covering the Renaissance vault of the Musician Angels with a Baroque-style decoration. At the beginning of the 21st century, these paintings of the musical angels were restored and remain splendid today. 

      Already in the 18th century, another renovation took place, this one in neoclassical style, in which the cathedral was covered with neoclassical decoration.

                                                             Vault of the Holy Chalice Room


                                        

                                                   Corbel in the Hall of the Holy Chalice.

      In my personal opinion, there are two chapels worth exploring in depth: the Chapter House and the Hall of the Holy Chalice, with a medieval alabaster altarpiece depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments that originally stood as a retrochoir in the cathedral's central aisle.

                                                

                                        Saint Francis Borgia, now a Jesuit, exorcising a dying man.

     The other chapel worth visiting is the second on the Epistle side, on the right if you enter through the Baroque door, where you can admire two monumental paintings by Goya of Saint Francis Borgia: the one on the left saying goodbye to his family to begin his journey to Rome, renouncing the Duchy of Gandía, and the one on the right, now a Jesuit, exorcising a dying man.

                                                       

Salvador Maella was a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and First Painter to the King under Charles IV. 

 The painting in the center of the chapel is a painting by Salvador Maella, a contemporary of Goya, which depicts the opening of the coffin of Isabella of Portugal, the wife of Emperor Charles I, by Francis Borgia in Granada Cathedral. This moment motivated Francis "not to serve a master who might die" and led to his renunciation of the Duchy of Gandía and his admission as a Jesuit, where he would become the third general of the company.

    The other chapels are also worth a visit, with their altarpieces and paintings by Vicente Masip, Juan de Juanes, and others. They are all very commendable, but, in my opinion, these two chapels are the most noteworthy if you don't have enough time to visit them all.

    

CATHEDRAL OF VALENCIA, BAROQUE DOOR

CATHEDRAL OF VALENCIA, IRON DOOR OR BAROQUE DOOR

 

                        

                              

                                               Historical setting and background

   This Baroque style façade was built at the historical moment of the change of dynasty in Spain at the beginning of the 18th century. With the death of the last king of the House of Habsburg, Charles II, a war for the succession to the Spanish throne began between the French Philip of Bourbon, later King of Spain as Philip V, and the Archduke of Austria Charles, later Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire under the name of Charles VI.

     The award of this facade was made through a design competition won by Konrad Rudolf, supporter of Archduke Charles, with, surely, the most avant-garde of the three projects submitted, participating in the discussions of the award, important progressive intellectuals Valencians as the Novator Father Tomas Tosca.

Tomas Tosca, besides being a great mathematician, was the author of the exceptional plan of Valencia of 1704.

 

                                      The cathedral based on Father Tosca's 1704 plan.

     Konrad Rudolf had to leave Valencia in 1707 when the army of Archduke Charles lost the battle of Almansa, so this façade was finished under the Bourbon government. 

     This Baroque door replaced another one of Gothic style of the 15th century that was built when the cathedral was enlarged, by the masters Francesc Baldomar and Pere Compte joining the Miguelete and the Chapter House, which were exempt. We will also comment that the Baroque door was made thanks to a donation from a lady of the Valencian nobility in the 17th century.

                                                          Inspiration

  The door is of capital importance in architectural terms, since it is the first time in the Iberian peninsula that waving curved shapes, concave/convex/concave, have been used for a construction of this type. This construction is strongly inspired by the façade of the Roman church of “San Carlo alle quattro fontane” designed by the architect Francesco Borromini in the middle of the 17th century for the Spanish order of the Discalced Trinitarians in Rome

                                          Baroque façade of Valencia Cathedral

                                    

                     Façada of "San Carlo alle quattro fontane" in Roma, of Borromini

     It must be said that Konrad Rudolf had previously worked in Rome, where he was familiar with the work of Italian baroque architects.

     Looking at the façade of the door and seeing the angle it forms, it is clear how little space there is for such a monumental door, between the bell tower - called “El Miguelete” because the largest bell was consecrated on the day of St. Michael in the sixteenth century - and the Chapter House to the right of the door. Chapel where the Holy Chalice of the Last Supper is venerated today. Moreover, at that time there was no Reina's Square, but a narrow street whose end was the door of the cathedral.

     The door is therefore an exercise of virtuosity to achieve in a small space an effect of grandeur, for it is played with curved shapes. When you approached, the difference in scale between the houses and the doorway achieved the effect of grandeur in addition to forming, in the concavity of the curve, a small square of access. When the houses were demolished and the current Reina's square was opened in the 20th century, the opposite effect was produced, losing the original scale, that is to say the façade was reduced in relation to the size of the square

        The old Zaragoza street, with the tramway, framing the baroque façade.

                                       Let's go with a brief description of the façade:

     The entrance is a small elliptical atrium -the ellipse is one of the typical geometric figures of the Baroque style-, framed by iron railings.

     The façade has three levels, with six columns on the first level, on the second level there are four columns and two exterior pilasters, all above the columns of the first level and, on the third level there are two more pilasters also above the interior columns of the second level.

     The columns on the first two levels have a one-piece shaft and are decorated on the lower part. Note the slight éntasis (bulging of the column to correct an optical effect, used by the classical Greeks and also in ancient Egypt).

      The capitals of the columns are Corinthian, decorated with representation of acanthus leaves, with the architrave - lintel that rests on the capital - mixtilinear and a continuous frieze, this one decorated with religious motifs.

  The third body has an irregular curved pediment, above which is placed the bronze globe with an iron cross and two angels adorning it.

 

                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                 

Decorated shaft

 Corinthian capitals with architrave and mixtilinear frieze. 

     In the first body, in the niche on the left as one looks at the door, is the statue of Saint Thomas of Villanueva, Augustinian friar and Bishop of Valencia in the time of emperor Charles I and great preacher, giving alms to the poor.

 

 

Saint Thomas of Villanueva    

    To the right is the niche with the statue of Saint Peter Pascual, Mercedarian and Valencian saint of the 13th century, bishop in the Nazarí kingdom of Jaén, where a redeemed captive is seen offering him the archiepiscopal mitre. 

    The Mercedarians and the Trinitarians were religious orders founded for the redemption (rescue) of Christians in Muslim power.

 San Peter Pascual

    Framed by the central columns, we see the entrance door, with semicircular arch and soffit decorated with a cloud of little angels in the center. 

 

    Soffit of the access door 

     On top of the door, there is a crowned scallop shell supported by two little angels, with the anagram of the Virgin Mary and at her feet more angels, all in an environment with a profusion of vegetal elements and clouds.

 

Scallop shell  of the Virgin with angels 

     On the second level, with four columns located on the four central columns of the lower level, we have on the left side, a statue of St. Vincent Martyr, patron saint of the city of Valencia, who was martyred in the early fourth century, with his classic iconographic attributes: a cross in a X shape on which he was tortured and a millstone, to which he was tied and thrown into the sea, according to tradition.

 

Saint Vincent martyr

     On the right side, we have the statue of the deacon Saint Lawrence martyr "San Lorenzo de la Parrilla" who was the one who sent the Holy Chalice from Rome to Huesca in the middle of the 3rd century according to tradition, being martyred on a grill, represented here under his left arm.

 

 

          Saint Lawrence of the Grill 

  In the intercolumns there are two medallions of the Valencian Popes. On the left Calixtus III, Alfonso de Borja (Italianized Borgia), Pope who canonized St. Vincent Ferrer and who made possible with his bull Inter Caetera of 1456 the Portuguese dominion of the entire African coast south of Cape Bojador, a cape located on the African continent a little south of the Canary Islands. 

 

             Pope Calixtus III 

      In the other medallion on the right side, the other Valencian Pope, Rodrigo de Borja (father of the famous Lucrezia Borgia) and nephew of Calixtus III. Pope with the name of Alexander VI, previously Bishop and then archbishop of Valencia, was the one who influenced Pope Innocent VIII to elevate the diocese of Valencia to metropolitan. In addition, by means of the Alexandrine Bulls of 1493, being already Pope, he laid the bases for the division of the recently discovered America between Spain and Portugal.

 

Pope Alexander VI

Tiles in Avellanas Street, next to the Episcopal palace, recalling the accession of the cathedral to the metropolitan see in 1492.

     Below and to the sides of the medallion of Calixtus III, we have two virtues, Justice, with the scales and Charity, with a child in her arms.

 

                                                Allegories of Justice and Charity

     On the right side, we have two other virtues, Fortitude with a column and Hope, with an anchor under her feet.                                  

 

                                              Allegories of Fortitude and Hope

     In the center of this second level, in the middle of the central columns, we find an elliptical stained glass window.

 

                                   Elliptical stained glass from the outside of the Cathedral

          Stained glass window from the interior of the cathedral. 

          On the third level, we have a relief representing the assumption of the Virgin Mary. 

Allegory of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary 

      And in the attic, another relief with the representation of the Holy Spirit, and above, the ball of the world topped with a cross, with two angels on its sides.

 

              Representation of the Holy Spirit in the pediment 

     To the left, the statue of the Dominican friar of the XIV/XV century, San Vicente Ferrer, with a book in the left hand and the index finger of the right pointing towards the sky preaching, which is his typical iconographic element. He is the patron saint of the Valencian community.

 

                                                          Saint Vincent Ferrer

On the right is the statue of another Valencian Dominican saint, St. Louis Bertran, who lived in the 16th century and was a preacher in Colombia and Valencia. Here he is depicted with a chalice in his right hand and a crucifix in his left.

 

                                                          Saint Louis Bertrán

     Finishing off the façade, we see a ball of the world, between two angels, with a cross dominating the composition of the façade.

     In summary, the beautiful baroque facade of the Cathedral of Valencia, designed and built in times of historical change, closed the substantial modifications to the exterior of the cathedral that began with the Romanesque of the thirteenth century, continued with the Gothic of the fourteenth century and with the Renaissance of the obra nova in the sixteenth century.  To complete the eclecticism of the cathedral, inside there are also chapels in neoclassical style.