Monastery of Sant Miquel dels Reis (València)

The monastery of Sant Miquel dels Reis is a monastery located on the outskirts of the city of Valencia, Valencian Community, Spain, in the Orriols district. It is the current headquarters of the Valencian Library.

Founded in the 16th century (1545) by the Duke of Calabria on an old monastery of the Cistercian order, Sant Bernat de Rascanya, it is one of the main buildings of the Valencian Renaissance. According to some authors, it is considered an antecedent of the monastery of El Escorial, being like this, a Jerónimo monastery, a cultural focus and a church commemorating the memory of its founder.

In 1623, it was decided to replace the old Cistercian church with a new and larger one, taking advantage of the walls and buttresses. The work was directed by Pere d’Ambuesa, ending in the middle of the century, although at the end of this, work was being done on the towers and decoration of the facade, directed by Raimundo Capuz. A church of outstanding dimensions was built, with a Latin cross with chapels between the buttresses, a dome with a drum above the cross and a high choir at the feet. The nave is covered with a barrel vault, the interior elevation is composed of Tuscan pilasters of giant order with fluted shafts, with the lower third having changed flutes.

In 1962 it passed into the hands of Valencia City Council and the County Council, four years later it stopped being used as a prison.

With the arrival of democracy, this monument is thought to be recovered, it will not be until 1997 that the rehabilitation works begin and end three years later as the new seat of the Valencian Library. The restoration has rescued the vestiges of Sant Bernat de Rascanya (cloister) which are preserved next to the unfinished north cloister of the monastery, with the rest of the monastery and elements of the presidium have also been recovered.

Address: Avinguda de la Constitució, 284, Rascanya, 46019 Valèncian Community, Valencia

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