Valencia City Hall
Surely you know many and have fantasized about the story they hide , to whom they belonged and what's going on inside you right now . From now on you will be able to experience it first-hand, because all this heritage of Palace of the Valencian Community , with great artistic and architectural value, approaches the public opening the doors to all its inhabitants and visitors.
Most of the Palaus today serve as a shelter for the public institutions of the Valencian Community . With this initiative, the general public will be able to know how these institutions work. Town halls, courts, ministries or councils, today they are located in old palaces and houses of the Valencian nobility , buildings belonging to the church such as convents and monasteries, and even old prisons for prisoners.
Let's see some examples . From north to south of the Valencian Community we will find traces of other times that now serve contemporary communities. walking through the Calle Mayor de Castellón, we will come across the Casa dels Caragols.
It receives this name for two curious marble sculptures that preside over its entrance door and it is a good example of Valencian Modernism . You can visit the main patio, decorated with the ornamental ceramics so typical of this movement in these lands and the delicate woodwork that decorates much of this old housing of the nobility , which today hosts the Presidency of the Generalitat.
Convent of Santo Domingo
If we continue on our **Palau route through the city of Valencia**, what place catches everyone's attention during the month of March every day at 2:00 p.m.? You're right. The balcony of the City Hall of Valencia , nerve center of one of the celebrations that Valencians like the most: the Fallas and the Mascletà.
Within its walls all the decisions to govern the city are made, but Did you know that its first construction dates back to the 18th century? The first part was conceived as the Teaching House, while the main façade -the one that houses the famous balcony- was finished in the 20th century.
And if you also want to feel the city at your feet, you can visit the building every day during the week from 8.00 h. at 3:00 p.m. having access to the hemicycle, the crystal room, which was an impressive Renaissance-style ballroom and, of course, the well-known balcony.
And from a symbol of the city center, we move on to another of the most delicious buildings in the city, the Captaincy General . Today it is the headquarters of High Availability Ground Headquarters , but a few centuries ago, specifically in the thirteenth century , its function was a very different one: it is the Convent of Santo Domingo .
Currently, it opens for a few hours a week, but visiting it is essential for us. Go figure: James I the Conqueror he laid the first stone of an entire building straddling the Gothic, Renaissance and neoclassical styles, three magnificent cloisters and the Los Reyes chapel.
Just ten minutes on foot from the convent, stands another of the most impressive Palaus in the city, the Palau de la Generalitat where the highest officials of the Valencian Community meet.
We ended up in the southernmost province of the Valencian Community, ** Alicante ,** and landed in a baroque-style palau, which is none other than the building that today occupies the City hall . Two towers flank an imposing building of three heights, which draws more attention, if possible, inside. Weekday visits include a stroll through the blue room, the main staircase and the plenary hall from which the entire city is governed today.
These are just some of the examples of all the Palaus that house the soul of the institutions. We have already visited them. And now it's your turn, are you going to miss it?
Facade of the City Hall of the city of Alicante