Look to your left for the wide, pale plastered brick facade featuring a flat stone doorway topped with a carved crest, standing just behind a tall stone column crowned with a bronze statue. This is the Palace of the Marquis de la Scala.
Well, I say palace, but you are actually looking at two separate manor houses joined together at the hip. If you stepped through that flat stone doorway, you would find yourself in a zaguán, which is a traditional grand vestibule designed to impress visitors the second they arrive. From there, the space opens into a shared courtyard linking the two homes.
Built originally in the sixteenth century, the building is an elegant architectural mutt, blending its original Valencian Gothic roots with a Renaissance upper gallery of small arches and later Baroque modifications. Inside, one of its grand staircases features an alfarje, a stunning style of geometric carved wooden ceiling with deep Moorish roots.
It is quite the flex in real estate. In fact, we will be heading to the Palace of the Generalitat Valenciana next, but there was a time when the Marquis living right here actually held more political weight than the regional government itself. Power, it seems, preferred this address.
And that bronze fellow on the column out front? That is a monument by sculptor Pío Mollar Franch depicting a Spanish conquistador. But the column he is standing on is entirely recycled, salvaged from a Renaissance era hospital.
This massive double mansion stands as a fantastic testament to Valencia's heavily layered history. Take as much time as you like here, and whenever you are ready, we can walk on over to our next stop.
