San Pascual Baylón: a hidden local church in Valencia

duvinca (73)in Architecture+Design • 2 days ago

Hello archi lovers!

Here again, looking at architecture that catches our attention, and we can find it almost anywhere. That's what happened to me with a small local church, in a neighborhood in the Spanish city of Valencia, named Parroquia de San Pascual Baylón, which is almost hidden, well inside a small courtyard, and only if you walk along that street and look to one side you see it.

I have spent some time there and I have always liked it because sometimes the façade has been completely covered by ivy, and that imposing vegetation made it more special. But now without it, we can really appreciate the façade as it is, which is not always possible, and as I happened to be there in time I decided to go in.

Now we can appreciate its details more closely but with the Christmas decorations still present, the strings of lights and a large festive wreath with large golden balls on the arch of the door. It is a very simple and sober church in reality, and if we look closely we can see some details of deterioration, but it still maintains a charming touch in that inner courtyard that makes all the noise from the street stay there, and suddenly with just a few steps, we feel in a haven of peace, spiritual peace?

We enter and look at the sides of the entrance area, where there are already important elements. A large painting over a baptismal font that is perhaps only used on certain occasions. And a statue slightly illuminated from behind at the top that we were not expecting.

We look inside and see some interesting things, lots of large paintings and a strange ceiling with wooden beams in a grid pattern. It is not something so usual in a church, but this is a modest church, which is still charming, especially with the upper round windows with colored glass, which are not very visible due to the intense sunlight, but are beautiful.

It is very quiet and there are few people, it is calm. So we look at the great variety of paintings, the decorative arches on the walls, the candelabras and to the left near the door a small alternative altar, with the cross and next to it there is a Christmas nativity scene that we like very much, behind the glass we can see the anteroom that we saw before.

We take a last general look at the central altar, but we do not get too close out of respect at that moment. And we also look more closely at some of those paintings, which have many details in their intense scenes.

Back in the anteroom we notice that the ceiling is also made up of wooden beams in the shape of a grid but wider, with a surprisingly modern appearance that stands out from the rest of the construction, from the large central lamp and especially from the large entrance door which has the coat of arms or symbol of the city of Valencia.

We leave passing under the large ornamental crown again, although we know that they will soon remove it and perhaps now they will let the ivy that covers the wall grow again. It gives it another unique touch and also covers up some damage such as that of one of the columns, but we will have to pass through this small space again in a street in Valencia where you do not expect it...