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This
page is destined to the description of the city and its monuments,
and it invites you to enjoy and discover the capital of the region
called "la Ribera". You will only have to forget about
everything and let your mind go through the three itineraries we
propose you, and if you wish to have more information about any
of the mentioned routes or monuments, only with a click in the coloured
words you will get it.
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I.
ALZIRA IN ONE DAY |
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We
propose you as point of item of our itinerary of tramp to initiate
it in the so called Park
of Saudi Arabia. Located this one at the beginning
of the avenue Luis Suñer, it will allow to state the immediate
of the Xúquer (Júcar), river that former was surrounding
Alyazirat, and to contemplate approximately 255 metres of walled walls
and large fortified towers, restored in 1973, of which Islamic enclosure
was going. From this point, and opposed to the Civil Police House
we can locate a Gothic ogive, which is a relic of the demolished St.
Mary's temple. Nowadays, it opens itself a diagonal that in other
times was connecting both stone bridges which made possible to cross
the village. They shape this one the streets Majors of St. Mary, Holy
Lucia, St. Roc, and Holy Catalina.
 The
Vila, which is nowadays in a lamentable state due to the recent
floods of 1982 and 1987, used to receive within the walled enclosure
the urban nucleus of major excellence and personality of the city.
The itinerant will be able to discover facades of rural typical housings
and samples of a modernist historicism tied to the middle class landowner.
We suggest you to stop in front of two portals: the one which was
convent of les
Llúcies and that of the number 29 of St. Roc
street. The first one, which was led to the Alzira's primitive hospital,
is tied to the magnanimity of the patron Pere Esplugues. Of its Renaissance
facade we would indicate the barred shield of the villa; of the second
one, the harmony of its voussoirs. Of the in
other times numerous ceramic pictures (patronymic stations of "cruces
route"), few of them subsist from 1882. We will come to the double
square of the "Carbó-Sufragi" and "Casassús",
which will allow us to contemplate in all its magnificence the Alzira's
Consistorial House. It was constructed between the
years 1547 and 1603, and it receive in its corridors noble Gothic,
Renaissance and Baroque elements. We suggest to have a rapid visit
to the interior, from which the Noble Lounge and the Municipal File
stand out to a great extent. The Lounge, located in the first floor,
protects a varied set of art works
It stands out
St Silvestre's altarpiece that dates back of 1597 and was painted
by Vicent Requena and perfectly restored in 1992. In this piece of
the first order, we can also see a Gothic Apostate of the circle of
Villahermosa's teacher, and diverse linens that includes anthologically,
the path of a man from Alzira called Teodor Andreu Sentamans. A monumental
"Immaculate Conception", proceeding from the extinct St.
Barbara's convent, is the best sculptural piece. In St.
Catalina square , opposite to the Constitution monument,
antique monument to the fallen remodelled by Leonardo Borrás,
it gets up the baroque facade of the homonym temple of the square.
This building, of ecliptic architecture, joins with certain harmony
Gothic, Renaissance and baroque outlines. According to the historical
documented tradition, it preserves for the ribereños, (people
from Alzira), the relic of the Saracens brothers St. Bernard, Mary
and Grace, patrons of the city, in bronzelike sculptures. Attached
to the facade that relapses to the squares of the Sufragi-Carbó,
it calls the attention, for its risky balance, the "espadanya-tower"
of the temple. Crossing the last section of the
Major street, we accede to Saints Patrons avenue to come to an islet,
in which still last the shrines of what used to be St. Bernard's bridge.
They are located in two
casilicios crowned by sculptures of the masculine
and feminine dedications, St. Bernard, Mary and Grace. They were raised
in 1717 for the canons Jaume Cervera and Nicolau Bas, and they were
sculptured by Francisco Vergara, known as "el Vell", basing
on Leonardo Julio Capuz's designs. In 1936, they were ruined, and
Antoni Ballester remodelled the lost or mutilated sculptures, which
would be sculpted in the Elies Cuñat's workshop.
 SIf
you want to continue our itinerary on foot, you can observe the isolated
kiosk of the Major square, which was executed in the workshop of X.
Claur, who has translated in ceramic the Alzira's iconography recreated
by the alzireño Ricardo Fluixà. Of this painter, we
can see an excellent collection of historical local landscapes in
the Co-operative society "the Agriculturist". We might suggest
a visit to the Círculo
Alzireño, which was commonly named for
its origins as The Cock pit. This colossal building, is placed opposed
to the Pious Schools and it bears witness to the brilliance of the
middle class landowner of Alzira. The construction was initiated in
1885 and it is a sample of the eclectic historicism in the Arabic
and Valencian lounges. The
Pious Schools (St August's former convent, 1270-1936)
receives nowadays dependencies of the House of the Culture. The beautiful
form of its facade has continuity in the portico court, in the perron
of access to the different floors and in some claustral wallsThe
library, the local Museum, the issuer of municipal radio, the room
of exhibitions and diverse rooms of multiple uses occupy its dependencies.
In the suburbs of the City some parochial temples are located: The
Incarnation, St
John or Sts Patrons. From the first one, former convent
of the Capuchins, we can distinguish, close to its baroque structure,
a spectacular ceramic altarpiece or the processional Step that represents
Jesus' prayer in the Garden.
In St John's Baptist
temple, it is of interest to value the set of its sculptural pieces,
and of the Sts Patrons, the totality of its windows, in which Antonia
Mir storied brilliantly the biography of Hammad Ibn al-Mansur, Zaida
and Zoraida (Bernard, Mary and Grace).
Finally, we suggest
that you should finish the visit rising on board of your vehicle to
the mountain of the Salvador. From its esplanade constructed at the
foot of the sanctuary of the mistress of the City, called Mare
de Deu del Lluch (suggestive sculpture realised
in the 1936 year for A. Ballester), it will contemplate the city in
its natural frame of the "Ribera". At this time, the twilight
will extract the last reflexes in the bronze-coloured pinnate of the
tower of the sanctuary. |
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ALZIRA: MONUMENTAL ROUTES |
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II.1.Iron
Bridge, the
Suburb of St Mary, the
Covered Cross, Ethe
Green River's bridge, St
Bernard's holy water bowl. If the visitor wishes,
he or she can realise this distance on foot) or by bicycle. The
point of meeting will be the Iron Bridge, which makes possible to
cross the Xúquer when going to Algemesí.
 This
work of engineering, designed in the first decade of the 20th century,
replaced the access to the Villa that before the demolition of St
Gregory's Gothic bridge, was made by this point. Its boundary, of
72 meters is turned into the boldest ostentation of the epoch, since
it overcomes in length to its, contemporary ones of Sueca, Cullera,
Gabarda and that of Albalat's double arcade. The fact of having
been restored a short time ago, augurs a long future. The river
Xúquer runs placidly, though in occasions it overflows in
the autumnal rises. Crossing the bridge we prune to visit the Suburb
of St Mary. Indicated with the number 30 of its street we locate
the chapel of the "Crist de la Verge Maria", with a sculptural
group that will bring to our memory the tradition of the "eponym
Christ of the building". In July, 1993 there was enthroned
a height of equal avocation in the temple of St Catalina.
Only two kilometres
separate us from the Covered Cross. A local tradition indicates
that it was raised where it is supposed that died Jaime I, when
going to Valencia. Or it can only be one of the multiple crossings
raised in the term by the Christian resettlers as testimony of the
new faith. Unknown its exactly chronology, its Gothic - Spanish
form, has remained admirably conserved thanks to the happy restoration
in the year 1961 by Francisco Pons Sorolla. The Cross, on original
shaft, shows the crucifix and St Mary.
We can come
back to Alzira for the rural way that starts in front of the Cross.
This one brings us over "Green River bridge" or of the
"Riuet dels Ulls". As citing documents in evidence it
is possible to venture the grant of the construction in Montsó's
Spanish Parliament of 1553 presided by the emperor Carlos I, it
is equally known with the name of this monarch. The only arch that
was very affected by the continuous floods, was restored a few years
ago with sobriety and economy of means. Consolidated, it is the
only bridge that is still built from the floral epoch. Before returning
to the Villa, and following the way of the station towards Benimuslem,
we will continue for a route with the following label: "Sanctuary
of St Bernard". In this place, the Trinitarians' convent was
getting up. It belongs to this Order, to custody the relics of the
martyr brothers. In the year 1980 it was built a functional ermitorio.
Near to this, we can locate the point where, according to the tradition,
took place the deaths of St Bernard and his sisters. In the year
1956 it was re-put the shrine known since then like "St Bernard's
holy water bowl".
 II.2.The
Villa: St Mary's ogive, Walled
Circuit.
A mean testimony
remembers the emplacement of demolished Gothic temple of reconquest
of St Mary. Jaime I, conqueror of Alyazira, chose this temple as
possible eventual sepulchre if he would died being in the island.
He ruined gradually throughout the 19th century, and it was devastated
in 1936 except for a tower that was demolished in 1957. We propose
the visitor to do a tour around what used to be a walled circuit
of Alyazirat. Walking by the avenue Luis Suñer, we will go
down to the park of Saudi Arabia to contemplate an approximation
of what used to be the walled defences of the island. The best preserved
fortified tower is the one that borders with the crossroad "Saludador",
(Greeter).
We continue
along the avenue dedicated to the manufacture of Alzira, and just
before coming to the Reyno square, there are the remains of another
walled section, recovered fortuitously when the old market was being
demolished. Looking at these walls and fortified towers, the visitor
can guess and deduce the power of the terraces produced immediately
after the fluvial sediments and, for the growth of the villa on
having built new housings after the demolition of previous ones.
Before turning to the left side, as we go, to recover the memory
of the original enclosure for Faustino Blasco's street, we prune
to contemplate the Monument to the Llaurador. We will do the walled
itinerary walking along Faustino Blasco's streets, Holy Teresa and
Algemesí's round. There are other "nonsense" developments,
which alternate to the length of these well restored housings.
We will return
to meet, at the end of the walk, with the river Xúquer and
the ferric bridge. We propose you now, if you have time, to get
lost through the streets and small squares of the villa, which although
the deterioration, still preserves the captivation of the medieval
nuclei.
II.3.La
Casa Consistorial. Iglesia
se Santa Catalina.
This two real
estates, almost confronted, are the best monumental sets of the
villa.
We have to
accommodate our visit to the liturgical schedule of the Church and
to the administrative one of the Town hall and to document the visit,
we also have to been supplied of the separates published in "Algezira"
(" The Consistorial House and its works of art ", number
2 and number 3), in which we can see the vicissitudes of the real
estates and of all the historical interest they hoard. Regarding
the Consistorial House, we propose the visitor to follow these guidelines:
Contemplation of the artistic styles included in the noble corridor,
from the Suffrage square and the square of Casassús.
Then, valuation of the space of the foyer, court and perron of access
to the first floor. After this, we propose to visit the Noble Lounge
and the office of the Mayoralty to admire the sculptures and paintings.
Finally, the access to the File, and the paintings of the room of
acts.
We suggest
you circumvallate the Church of St. Catalina (alley of the Belfry,
Carbó and Suffrage squares, Sang street and the square of
the Constitution) to estimate the ancient work (apse, major chapel,
ship between buttresses and tower of the belfry) and the amplification
realised in 1782 at the expense of the former cemetery. Already
in the interior, the spaces that contain St. Bernard neobaroque
altar, the major chapel, the chapels between buttresses and the
dome on scallops. Opposite the most interesting baroque facade,
it gets up a monument to the Constitution, and in the surroundings,
we find some of the modernist-historic real estate of Alzira's major
excellence.
 II.4.LThe
casilicios of St Bernard's bridge. The
Círculo Alzireño. The
Pious Schools The
Culture House. Temples and Oratories.
Assimilated
the reading of the basic data included in "Alzira in one day",
we would like to remember the traveller that certain areas answer
to a specific schedule. The "Gallera" and the House of
the Culture are practically opened the whole day, whereas to the
religious enclosures it is possible to accede in the intervals previous
and posteriors to the prayers and liturgical acts. The sacred patrimony
was incinerated in the year 1936, and it is nowadays limited to
paintings and sculptures of unlike quality, and holders of the temples
or proper dedications of the neighbourhood attend to the processional
Steps, images of the patrons (St Bernard and his sisters and la
Mare de Déu de Lluch).
Architecturally,
if we exclude the Incarnation monastery, a disentailed monastery
that receives the Municipal Hospital and the Temple, the rest of
the monasteries were built in the last decades: St Joan Baptist
(with historicism aesthetics. 1948-1955), Sts Patrons (of complex
remodelling. 1966). Mare de Déu del Lluch (of functional
trace. 1966), Sacred Family (simple and diaphanous. 1966). To the
unquestionable sentimental value of the hermitages dedicated to
the Christ of the Verge Maria and St Judes Tadeu and to the pragmatism
of the oratorical at the colleges of the Sacred Family (1964) and
Sts Patrons (1976), it is superposed for the innovation of the forms
and the spatial conception the oratories of the "Purísima"
School (1970) and of the "Llar de Teresa Jornet (1963.1967).
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