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Valencian Community / Spain

The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid with more than five million inhabitants. Its homonymous capital Valencia is the third largest city and metropolitan area in Spain. It is located along the Mediterranean coast on the east side of the Iberian peninsula. It borders with Catalonia to the north, Aragon and Castilla–La Mancha to the west, and Murcia to the south. The Valencian Community consists of three provinces which are Castellón, Valencia and Alicante. According to Valencia's Statute of Autonomy, the Valencian people are a nationality. Their origins date back to the Aragonese reconquest of the Moorish Taifa of Valencia, which was taken by James I of Aragon in 1238 during the Reconquista. The newly founded Kingdom of Valencia was granted wide self-government under the Crown of Aragon. Valencia experienced its golden age in the 15th century, as it became the Crown's economic capital. Self-government continued after the unification of the Spanish Kingdom, but was eventually suspended in 1707 by Phillip V of Spain as a result of the Spanish War of Succession. Valencian nationalism resurged towards the end of the 19th century, which led to the modern conception of the Valencian Country. Self-government under the Generalitat Valenciana was finally reestablished in 1982 after Spanish transition to democracy. Many Valencian people speak Valencian, the region's own co-official language, also known as Catalan in other regions. Valencian is a diglossic language that was repressed and prosecuted during Franco's dictatorship in favour of Spanish. Since it regained official status in 1982 in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, Valencian has been implemented in public administration and the education system, leading to an exponential increase in knowledge of its formal standard. According to the general survey from 2015, Valencian is understood by almost the entire population living within the Valencian Community and is spoken by a wide majority, but almost half of the population cannot write it.

Museu de Belles Arts de València

Valencian Community / Spain

The Museu de Belles Arts de València is an art gallery in Valencia, Spain, founded in 1913. It houses some 2,000 works, most dating from the 14th–17th centuries, including a Self portrait of Diego Velázquez, a St. John the Baptist by El Greco, Goya's Playing Children, Gonzalo Pérez's Altarpiece of Sts. Ursula, Martin and Antony and a Madonna with Writing Child and Bishop by the Italian Renaissance master Pinturicchio. It houses a large series of engravings by Giovan Battista Piranesi. The museum is in the St. Pius V Palace, built in the 17th–18th centuries. It has also sections dedicated to sculpture, to contemporary art and to archaeological findings.

Valencia Cathedral

Valencian Community / Spain

The Metropolitan Cathedral–Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady of Valencia , alternatively known as Saint Mary's Cathedral or Valencia Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic parish church in Valencia, Spain. The cathedral was consecrated in 1238 by the first bishop of Valencia after the Reconquista, Pere d'Albalat, Archbishop of Tarragona, and was dedicated to Saint Mary by order of James I the Conqueror. It was built over the site of the former Visigothic cathedral, which under the Moors had been turned into a mosque. Valencian Gothic is the predominant architectural style of the cathedral, although it also contains Romanesque, French Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical elements. The cathedral contains numerous 15th-century paintings, some by local artists , others by artists from Rome engaged by the Valencian Pope Alexander VI who, when still a cardinal, made the request to elevate the Valencian See to the rank of metropolitan see, a category granted by Pope Innocent VIII in 1492.

Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi

Valencian Community / Spain

The Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi is a former Roman Catholic seminary, now museum, on calle de la Nau in the Spanish city of Valencia in the old city opposite La Nau, the former Universidad Literaria. The college complex was built between 1586 and 1615 and now hosts the little-known Museum of the Patriarch.The Patriarch, Real College and the Seminary of Corpus Christi are a church, a seminary and a college, respectively. Work on the buildings began in 1586 and finished in 1610. It is structured around a large renaissance cloister enclosing the church, the communion chapel, the library, the sleeping quarters and the classrooms. There is another courtyard at the back and a small belfry is located in the corner of the plaza.Archbishop Juan de Ribera of Valencia, who built the College, arranged housing there for the Franciscan nun, mystic Sr. Margarita Agullona so he could bear witness to her mystical raptures and for 25 years. When she died, he had her remains moved there. "He ordered in February 1605, that the body of the Venerable, who was incorrupt, be moved, and arranged that a burning lamp always burned before her sepulcher."The Patriarch, has been a National Monument since 1962 and it became a Monument of Cultural Interest in 2007, and remains an excellent example of Renaissance architecture. Of special note in the Patriarch Museum are paintings by Caravaggio, El Greco, Van Der teyden, Benlliure, Ribalta and Pinazo, as well as an original manuscript by Sir Thomas More.