Velluters Distict of Valencia: old and new Glimpses

The district Velluters is are my favorite one around Valenciawith the Market and Carmen, since I was born there and moved along those narrow streets during my childhood.

It is also the damagest due to successive enlargements of the city and further degradation of the streets because of some remain of the ancient "brothel".
Velluters is a neighborhood that is named the "Mercers" and Silk trade workers since they had many factories from the sixteenth to the eigthenth centuries, with a good presence of Genoese craftsmen. Proof of that, the image of the Virgin of the Helpless that this group built in an altar to the Church of St. Augustine. This church has conserved proudly the oldest image of devotion of Valencia, Our Lady of Grace. Other religious monuments are the church of St. Charles Borromeo, due too to this very brotherhood of the Genoese, next to the old general hospital and the academy of surgery, the Pilar Church, run by the Dominican fathers.

    

 

Among the civil architecture of the district stood once the old Provincial Hospital of Valencia, together with the Faculty of Medicine, demolished in the pasts 60s of the last century. Today has it been restored into a space for the Muvim museum of the Illustration with interesting temporary exhibitions of art and ethnography. And the hospital cruise became a Municipal Library, the Library of the Hospital with an interesting interior. 

 

New Gardens on Ancient Medicine Facultty

The new gardens of orange and palm tress have been recently opened and is a gathering of young bohemian of this district, the “Gothic area”, and socializing of people accompanying a huge variety of dogs.

The palace of the silk Arts&Crafts is the next interesting building, unfortunately, as our newspapers write without a definite project for restoration. And thing most remarkable when you can not understand without this institution the main monument of our Middle Age heritage such as The Silk Exchange Market or the Lonja. The third important building of this area is the Palace Tamarit, from an interesting family of farmers from Ruzafa, which derived their agricultural efforts in investment into the lucrative silk looms.

 

Entrance Silk ARst&Crafts Palace

In this environment also stands The School of Arts and Crafts and several traditional Valencianl dressing companies, as Albaes, who pioneered the design both artisanal and industrial of silk clothing of Valencia, whose main exponent focuses on Spring feasts of St. Joseph, known worldwide as Las Fallas.

Are you encouraged for this route?

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Know more about:
Juan-Luis Corbin Ferrer, Barrio del Pilar, antiguo de Velluters, Valencia 1991
Joan Boronat-Josep vicent Boira-Ricardo Franch, El Palau Tamarit,  Valencia 2011.
 See and Visit

Ecotours: rivers and streams, and a new path to Mediterranean Sea

 

Our specialist guide for adventurers and group biking tours offers you today a reflection and a proposal about southern Valencia (Spain). It is a simple route through wich you can explore in some three hours a special landscape during winter and springtime seasons.
This is the map of the route where the river Júcar / Xúquer flows out to the sea along the citrus fields of Valencia beside the Natural Ressource of Albufera Lake.
The route allows you to visit magnificent villages at the foot of the mountains such as Corbera or Alcira, and to visit but chose to visit riverbank towns as Polinyà del Júcar, Riola and Fortaleny.

The dominant vegetation is the wide fields of orange groves, this very sweet orange that was once discovered in these regions, the sweet orange grafted from the original bitter according to a tradition of Massores in Carcaixent hort. More beautiful oranges are the navel and navelin, with stark fruitful colour and flavor that brings full citrus taste without any note of bitterness to our palate. We ride along a bike path across small towns as Polinyà, Riola, Sueca and Fortaleny always on located on the river bank. 

                                        

The river path lies on a peralted platform that permits you to take a watch on around the green mountains the orange valleys, the myrtle talls of Alcira and Corbera, the rice marshes of Sueca and to the end the mediterranean waters near Cullera.
Also a question. 

The authorities of the region we visit, could they join efforts to expand this cyclable path to other towns, so that one could go almost from the mouth of Cullera up to other populations such as Alzira and Algemesí Júcar up?

 

Areyou encouraged for thisroute?

The Bridges of Valencia and the descent into the river bed

 

Valencia is characterized by the large number of bridges along old Turia riverbed, some fifteen bridges, most of them of medieval root like the Trinity, Serranos and “Puente del Real”, others modern style such as the Gateway, Pasarela or Pont de Fusta, such others avantgardist From the architect Santiago Calatrava. The flowers Bridge is one of the best known.
This set of bridges is complemented by the defense of water system that would prevent flooding and is known as the parapets and its artistic environment.

This system is a colossal unit work for its size hardly comparable with other European river defenses.

Its main part is the “old work” or obra Vella" started between the bridges of Trinidad and El Real between 1591 and 1592 and from the Real Bridge to the Sea. The parapets were done between 1606 and 1674. This parapets also contain some decorative works, concentrated in the Paseo de la Pechina, with handrails, ramps, stairs and stone work. Especially in the southern parapet near the Botanical Gardens, one can find a wide ramp down to the river dated from 1765. This is a railing of Stone-walk for loading and unloading to the river, with horse-drawn carts or draft animals or beasts of burden. The aforementioned ramp has some bumps in stone that can be considered the ancestors of our speed bumps at the entrance of our towns.
                                             
This kind of speed reducers permitted to the horse chars a safely to our Turia river bed. Then mule driver loaded the wood coming from the mountains, filled water pitchers or perform other functions. At the bottom of the bumped stone walk there is a great convex shape Shell. This famous sculpture gave name to the alley known by valencian people as Paseo de la Pechina.
                                                                 
If you drive your bike a little further up in the Turia River Park, at the height of the "Water House" you can consider a stone-bow into the walls, marking an ancient canal or water intake of this ditch, named acequia de Rovella.
       
The Canal of Rovella at his end beside the Music Palace (2012) and at 1946.

The beginning of Rovella Canal at 1950 and 2012




Plant and tree elements, both Mediterranean and American, give a new life today to the city renew river bed. The newly planted trees are particularly interesting to us such as jacaranda tree of Brazil and Peru and South American Bottle-tree.
                                                           

Ancient Turia river bed new and refreshed gardens. A beautiful setting and a unique scenery for its history and cultural values​​, as well as a marvelous urban gardens that positions Valencia as special destiny in Europe.

We ecologist would only ask authorities to add soon to this this vegetation belt the ancient Jesuit college garden connected with the Botanical Gardens.

The more beautiful Bridges of Valencia

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