To request more information:
Regidoria of Culture and Education. Town-Hall of Alzira. Telephone number: +34 962 400 450
 
 
  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.

 

 
  I. ALZIRA IN ONE DAY  
   
  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.
 
   
  ALZIRA: MONUMENTAL ROUTES  
 

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).