We had a slow start here in Valencia. We both fell pretty hard for Portugal and, while we were prepared for warmer temps in Spain, we were not prepared for the accompanying humidity. Adding to the slow start, we ordered our mail to get delivered here when we arrived and found ourselves waiting on FedEx for two days.
Meanwhile, in exploring the apartment, we attempted to raise up a blind to let some more light into the bedroom, not knowing the blind hadn’t been working properly. We got it stuck open. Whoops. The rental host was really great about it and sent maintenance to fix it the same day mail arrived. Aside from getting basic groceries we hadn’t ventured out and knew we needed to just get out there. We needed to work at it a bit.
Old City Valencia
We oriented to the Ciutat Vella (old city in Valencian) by deciding to check out, oh, you know, just the 600 year old remnants of a medieval wall that encircled the city. The Torres de Serranos (Serrano Towers), on the north, front what used to be the river Turia and is now an incredible parkway. Completed in 1398, this towered gate was one of thirteen entrances into the city through its wall that existed from the 14th to 19th centuries. The Torres de Serranos was the main entrance to the city named, so I read, because the road faces the region Els Serrans to the north. The road led on to Aragon and Catalonia.
From there we walked to the Torres de Quart (Quarter Towers) on the western side of the old city. Named because the road from Valencia from that gate led to the town of Cuart de Poblet and ultimately to inland Spain and Madrid. Completed in 1493, these towers still show the damage inflicted by Napoleon’s forces in 1808 when the French failed to take the city.
These two were both in later centuries repurposed as prisons among other uses. Ironically, that helped them survive through the mid 1800’s when the medieval wall was pulled down to allow the city to expand. Around the Torres de Serranos you can see a small portion of the moat that surrounded the wall, protecting the city. We’ve walked through them many times as we’ve walked to parts of the city. In fact, I had a dress altered at a tailor shop mere feet from the Torres de Quart. Waiting for it to open, I stood there taking in the juxtaposition of the history they emanate while the modern world of cars and people move by.
Fine Arts Museum
The first museum we went to was the Museu de Belles Arts de Valencia. The first surprise was that it is free to enter. Not just on Sundays, but any day. I’ll state now that this is a pattern here. As we started to navigate the museums, it was clear that Valencia prioritizes art and its availability to the public. Most museums offer free entry on at least one day during the month, or even once a week. The fact that this museum is free everyday is astonishing. It is world class.
The ground floor galleries are dedicated to religious art. It seems every artists coming up in the ranks in Spain did their own version of the crucifixion and associated scenes. Some are overwhelmingly complex with multiple scenes making up a very large assemblage of paintings, all framed in heavy ornate gold. Personally, it isn’t my kind of art. I did find a lot of appreciation for the paintings of one artist as I found the vivid colorwork compelling.
The upstairs galleries began to branch away from religious themes and we found portraits of important nobles and dignitaries. I found it interesting that some, well many, were quite formal as I’m sure everyone can picture. But then there are the few that seem a bit more loose. What really caught my eye was a particular still life. When we entered the museum, we were told no photography. What they meant was no pictures in the special exhibit but in our non-existent Spanish seemed a blanket statement. I bring this up because I saw others in the main museum taking photos and found the still life so compelling I asked a guard if I could. Without a flash it was allowed and that was all the ‘thumbs up’ I needed.
The second surprise at this museum was their temporary exhibit. Joaquin Sorolla. Look him up (or use the link to the left) if you have never heard of him. Neither of us had, and wow, oh wow. On exhibit were 46 paintings from the private Masaveu collection. He was a Valencian artist headed toward more traditional work until he spent time in Paris and was exposed to modern art in 1885. His work is stunning. Almost equally remarkable was the method of exhibit. The works were arranged chronologically and interpreted so you could see the evolution of his work. The paintings themselves were arranged in a grid in the space. Bear with me here and I’ll try to describe it. Initially conceived in South America (I can’t remember the country), there are heavy blocks that support a vertical case of plexglass. Inside the plexiglass hangs the painting at eye level, protected of course. What was fantastic is that you could walk around the painting and see the back of the works. So you could see the previous auction labels, catalog numbers, stamps from previous museum exhibits. It was incredible and like nothing we’ve ever seen. It really does change the way you experience the art as opposed to it all hanging on a wall. on the edges of a room. It was marvelous.
University Botanical Garden
Despite the heat and humidity, we headed off through the Torres de Quart to make our way to this garden. We had enjoyed the Lisbon Botanical Garden so much. This was a much bigger deal or, rather, just very different. It was immediately clear from the layout that there was an element of study behind it. Areas for succulents and boy did Trevor light up around the cactus. Huge trees from the tropics. An area just for roses and a pond with lily pads next to a period greenhouse where they raise up type of palm trees. What stood out to me is they had a section for economically important plants such as vegetables and dyes. It was huge and a real treat.
Then we really hit our stride and went to five museums in one weekend. We wanted to visit places on weekends as many of them offer free entrance Saturdays and/or Sundays. Why not take advantage, right? Also, given our rental location we can easily walk to all of them and several are mere steps away from the others. Did I mention we have a stellar AirBNB?
Casa de Jose Benlliure
I had found this one in the list of museums and it sounded interesting. Seemed like a combo in that you enter what was the home of this Valencian artist. Inside are certainly paintings of his, but also of other artists he knew, liked, and admired, as well as work of his family members who were all talented at painting and sculpture. The house also contains furniture and shows of the decoration appropriate for that period of time. When we saw a masterful and large painting of his hanging in the Fine Arts Museum, it was a no brainer.
The ground floor retains furniture and decorations as they existed when he and his family lived there. In fact, the small front parlor with portraits on all the walls is known as the Portrait room and contains only pictures of them and their extended family. There is so much to take in. As you move upstairs to the second and third floors, you arrive at galleries. The second floor is dedicated to Jose Benlliure’s work and the top floor to his son, daughters, and brothers paintings and sculptures. But it gets better.
You exit the house into a garden and you immediately sense this is special. The attendant explained it is one of very few remaining examples of a true Valencian walled garden. Tiles on the walkways and walls are delightful. Fountains and landscaping and completely private. What a refuge from a busy city they had. But it gets better.
You walk through the garden to get to his studio. The bottom floor has some small display cases of items he collected but the true prize is the upstairs studio. Whenever I think of the great masters painting in a studio – a still life, someone’s portrait – this is what I imagined. A big bay window extending on the northern wall, with light curtains hanging to allow diffuse entry of that wonderful northern light for painting. The bay “floor” is actually elevated with an easel set up below. It is mesmerizing to see this in person, the actual location where a master painter actually created his work with the actual items and tools around him that he admired, was inspired by and used. Needless to say, this became one of our favorite sites here.
Ceramics Museum (Museu Nacional de Ceramica)
This official name for this museum is the Museu Nacional de Ceràmica i de les Arts Sumptuàries Gonzàlez Martí. It is housed in a palace that was built and decorated in the 1400s by an extremely wealthy family of Spanish nobility, the Rabassa de Perellós. Renovations, changes, and more decorations, because “more is more”, were done in the mid 1700s. The title of the family that built and owned it was the Marqués de Dos Aguas, and those two waters, or the Turia and Júcar Rivers, are represented in the ornate alabaster entrance. If you look close in the image, towards the bottom, there are two urns spilling out water.
Describing this place as opulent is like describing water as wet. Certainly on the ground floor but more so on the second floor, you walk through rooms of visual sensory overload. Frescoes, wainscoting, tile floors, ornate painted and gold crown moldings, trim, mirrors, marble… the list goes on. Some rooms do contain furnishings and certainly phenomenal art hanging on the walls. It is also enormous, with room after room of more and more and more. I’ll admit it became almost comical to see what the next room had to offer. While I struggled to envision any aspect of this place as any kind of cozy home space, it is a truly remarkable place to visit.
What is interesting about this place are the layers to it. From the structure that is the house, you have a true museum of ceramics here, with lots of examples of beautiful work. There was even a case with three works by Picasso. I especially liked the displays with mirrors placed strategically to allow you to see the decoration on the outside of the platter or bowl that would normally be hidden.
I became curious about the latter part of the name referencing Gonzels Marti, which seemed another layer. I learned he was quite the academic, studying ceramics and art, participating in archaeologic digs, collecting items, as well as being quite a famous cartoonist. That last part was a curve ball. He was also director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia in the 1940s and did a great deal to promote and lead the study and preservation of Valencian culture.
Lastly, though the first space you encounter on the first floor is a temporary exhibit space. Here, we found the work of Pedro Mercedes. Initially, I would describe this work with the word scrimshaw, but I’m not sure if that is officially correct. All the interpretive information was in Spanish so I took pictures. Perhaps back in Maine on a cold, winter day, I’ll work on translating it all. The museum’s website officially describes him as a potter that transforms craft into art. (Sigh, there is that old yarn again about what is craft and what is art. I’m not jumping on that right now. Moving on.)
He was prolific and it is truly incredible to see how he can make surfaces come alive with so much imagery and details, all by scraping away a layer. Rarely, though sometimes, color is applied but it really isn’t necessary. I found one description of him as a poet with clay and that seems accurate.
Archaeology Museum – Almoina
Information for this museum indicated there were remnants of an old Roman road and other ruins. We were eager to check it out given how interesting we found the ruins for making garum and the Roman amphitheater in Lisbon. (We also visited a recently discovered Roman dam on a weekend getaway I will soon write about). This site in Valencia, however, kind of blows them away. When you descend under the entrance floor, you realize the building you entered is on top of the intersection of two old roman roads.
The quality of the…. (what do I call it, exhibit, site, museum, ruin…. hard to know) is so well done. Glass blocks on the ground level outside send light down into the ruin, precisely on the location of the old bath house. Therefore, it provides a soft illumination to the entire space and also, with the movement of light through water, the illusion water to better immerse you in the space. And it is an enormous space. You are truly walking around the ancient Roman city of Almoina, albeit on level, walkways floating above the actual ruin.
Another incredibly well executed aspect of the ruin is that as you view the remnants of the Roman road, you follow it to the edge of the space to a canvas on the wall. An artists spare but meaningful rendering of what the site would have looked like helps you understand what you are looking at and the true scope of the city that was here. As a former museum studies student, I was really impressed with these strategies of interpretation to convey a deeper sense of the site beyond the understandably sparse and rough condition of what remains from more than 2,000 years ago.
A last comment on the interpretation of the site I would offer is for the metal models. We have seen these outside other museums as well as this one, where they offer braille text alongside it. While I didn’t touch it because I’ve just been conditioned in museums not to do so, clearly these are meant to allow visually impaired individuals to engage with this and other sites. Inclusive interpretation done so well.
In addition to the main attraction of the ruins, we found cases on the main entrance level containing examples of pottery found at the site. Some of it was found in one of two wells and was believed to be used once and then discarded. Some of it, as the 10th image above shows, were used in the 12th and 13th centuries. I still can’t get over the age of relics here. We also found a temporary exhibit of architectural decorative pieces recovered from renovations or when buildings are demolished. You get the feeling this stuff is just laying around and, oh yeah, happens to be 1,000 years old. The detail in this carved limestone was breathtaking.
Palau del Marques de Campo
Mere steps away from the Archaeology Museum is the Palau del Marques de Campo. While the building is quite wonderful, it doesn’t hold the furnishings to represent one of the grand palaces as others do. What it does have, however, is some phenomenal art. An extensive collection of paintings by Valencian artists presented in beautiful rooms. Across from the entrance foyer and desk was a gallery with a temporary exhibit for Antonio Abellan. I didn’t take photos as he is a living artist and it didn’t seem right. I did capture the outside banner. If you love art, I recommend looking him up. His work is compelling. Bright colors and clear images, harkening back in many cases to a feel of life in the 1940s and 1950s. I really don’t know how to describe it but very much enjoyed the discovery.
Silk Exchange
La Lonja de la Seda, or Silk Exchange, is considered one of the most important civil Gothic monuments in Europe and is not to be missed. It isn’t a museum full of art or a palatial home full of furnishings. It is the most amazing empty space I’ve ever been in. Built for the purpose of trading in silk when Valencia was a powerhouse in textile and silk commerce, the first stone was laid in 1492 though construction wasn’t started until a year later. It was completed in 1533. When you enter, you come first into the courtyard, or Orange Courtyard. You can enter directly into the main trading hall. The image says it all. It is incredible. This is where transactions and contracts were arranged by merchants, initially for silk but also other goods.
From the main trading hall, there is a small chamber that served as a chapel which is part of the tower. The upper floors of the tower housed a prison for debtors that failed to pay. There is also a side wing known as the Consular del Mar, or Consulate of the Sea. The tribunal there would administer laws and it certainly has a serious and solemn feel. Underneath it is a cellar with its own impressive vaulted ceiling.
