Frescoes, Silk and Saints: Inside Valencia’s Old Town

Valencia’s old town keeps its best rooms behind plain doors: a church vault painted from end to end, the hall of the velvet weavers, a Renaissance college hung with Flemish tapestries, the city’s oldest church. Here is a morning among them.

The Santos Juanes

Start beside the Mercat Central at the Church of the Santos Juanes, Gothic from the 13th century and one of Spain’s great Baroque ensembles. Antonio Palomino’s frescoes and the stuccoes of the Lombard masters Bertesi and Aliprandi, damaged in the Civil War, have been restored with the Hortensia Herrero Foundation; a light and sound show completes the visit.

The silk weavers

A few streets west, on Calle del Hospital, the Silk Museum fills the 15th-century house of the velluters, the velvet weavers’ guild that gave the quarter its name. Its rooms mix Gothic and Baroque, with original frescoes and Valencian tiles; Seda 1477, for Valencian silk to take home, is on the same street.

El Patriarca

Cross the centre to El Patriarca, the Royal College Seminary of Corpus Christi, founded in 1583 by St John of Ribera and finished in 1610. The college is one of the finest Renaissance buildings in Spain, its museum holds works by Caravaggio and El Greco, and Flemish tapestries of the 16th century hang in the chapel.

The first churches

San Juan del Hospital is the oldest church in Valencia, founded in 1238 for the Knights Hospitaller after the conquest by James I, with the city’s only medieval cemetery. Santa Catalina followed in 1245, on the site of a mosque; its Baroque bell tower can be climbed on most mornings.

Valencia keeps its best rooms behind plain doors.

The Geperudeta

End on the Plaza de la Virgen at the Basilica of the Virgen de los Desamparados, built in the 17th century for Valencia’s patron, with a fresco by Palomino inside.

Did you know? Valencians call their patron la Geperudeta, “the little hunchback”, for the slight stoop of her 15th-century image.

Our advice

Our advice: several of these places keep short or set hours. El Patriarca’s guided tours run on Friday mornings, San Juan del Hospital’s full visits on Monday, Friday and Sunday, and the Santa Catalina tower opens in the late morning. Plan around them, and dress for church visits.