On your right, you will see a semi-circular stone archway set into a yellow wall, topped by a large framed painting and dark painted lettering. Just a short walk from Angels Tower, we are stepping right into a medieval boundary line. This arch, the Portal of the Valldigna, was literally punched through the city's eleventh-century Islamic wall around the year 1400. Back then, it served as the border crossing that separated the Christian city from the walled Moorish quarter.
Above the opening sits a reproduction of a retablo, which is a traditional Spanish devotional altarpiece, depicting King James the Second of Aragon. It looks quite peaceful now... but this exact spot witnessed a brutal scene in 1409. A local friar named Joan Gilabert Jofré threw himself in front of an angry mob that was violently stoning a mentally ill man. The friar successfully stopped the attack, but he was so shaken he completely rewrote his next public sermon. His impassioned preaching directly inspired Valencia to build the world's first dedicated psychiatric hospital that very same year.
This little gateway also saw the Iberian Peninsula's first printing press set up right next door in 1474. Yet, despite being the backdrop to all this human drama, developers actually tried to demolish the arch in 1944 just to build a new house. Fortunately, a local arts director fought to get it declared a protected monument right in the nick of time.
It is amazing how close the city came to losing the very stones where so much history happened. Take your time looking around, and then we will head over to the L'Iber Lead Soldier Museum.
