Centre del Carme de Cultura Contemporània
The Royal Monastery of the Virgen del Carmen of Valencia was established in 1281 in the district of Roteros, located outside the city’s Arab walls, as well as other convents founded after the Christian conquest, such as those of San Domingo (1239 ), San Agustín (1250) and Saïdia (1268). The 1356, with the new late medieval wall, is within the urban perimeter. Its importance does not admit doubt, and not in vain to the monastery must the name one of the most authentic and popular districts of the city: the neighborhood of Carmen.
After several renovations and its use as an exhibition space, the Carmen Center undertakes in 2.017 a new stage as a center of contemporary culture with the aim of welcoming a wide range of languages and artistic practices representative of current culture such as visual arts, experimental performing arts , performance, film, music, sound art, design, publishing, books … but also integrate other branches of thought such as sociology, architecture, economics, law, urbanism or medicine.
In this new stage, the Carmen Center also includes initiatives of civil society and the associative sphere of the Valencian Community. The Carmen Center also has an educational program consisting of workshops and other artistic experiences that seek to open the space and bring culture to all audiences, whatever their social status or age group. Thus, the Centro del Carmen is, since November 2016, the first Spanish art center, and for now, the only one, to offer a permanent room for early childhood, from 0 to 3 years, called ‘Telles space’. In this way the Centro del Carmen is presented as a center dedicated to the culture of our time, inclusive, plural, open and with a transparent management model.
More information at Centre del Carme de Cultura Contemporània website.
Centre Museístic La Beneficència
The Center Museístic La Beneficència is a building that has had different uses throughout its history. It began as a convent at the beginning of the 16th century and was Casa de la Beneficencia from the middle of the 19th century, where it was helped and prepared for the working world by orphans and beggars.
With the arrival of democracy it becomes a museum center that houses two of the most important museums in the city: the Museu de Prehistòria de València (founded in 1927) and the Museu Valencià d’Etnologia (created in 1983). It also houses other institutions of the Diputació de València, the Alfons el Magnànim Institute and the Assistència i Recursos Culturals (SARC).
The architecture of the building shines through the old chapel, current auditorium Alfons El Magnànim, its courtyards and the vegetation that remains.
Visitors will find a shop and a cafeteria-restaurant that complement this cultural center and make it a privileged space for culture and leisure in the heart of the city of Valencia.
More information on the website of the La Beneficiencia Museum Center.
Complex Esportiu-Cultural “La Petxina”
The old Municipal Slaughterhouse, work of the Setabense architect Luis Ferreres Soler, began to be built in 1898 and was inaugurated in 1902. In those years, this facility was far from the urban area, next to what was then known as the crossroads between the roads of Madrid and Tránsitos, and stuck to the irrigation ditch of Rovella from which it obtained the water necessary for its operation.
With an area of 12,875 square meters and located between the Paseo de la Petxina and the streets Teruel and Pérez Galdós, next to the bed of the Turia river, the value of this construction lies in the harmony that makes up the whole set of buildings that make it up. According to the architects who wrote the renovation project for the old Slaughterhouse, Carlos Payá and Carlos Campos, “the construction of these buildings is a beautiful example of the hygienist postulates that were imposed in the great public works undertaken in Valencia at the beginning of the 20th century” . Likewise, they point out that “the industrial purpose of the real estate made that its design was adapted to the needs of use, although without renouncing a simple decoration in which the materials with which it was built are praised”. With all this, the Municipal Slaughterhouse of Valencia was constituted as a shining example of public and industrial building.
After several forms, such as the one that occurred in 1957 after the serious damage caused by the flood, the Municipal Slaughterhouse began to be absorbed by the growth of the city and, in 1969, once consolidated its urban environment, it was closed and moved.
Currently, after the rehabilitation that was inaugurated in May 2003, the building houses the Sports and Cultural Complex “La Petxina”.
More information on the website of the Complex Esportiu-Cultural La Petxina.
