CURIOSITIES OF VALENCIA VOL.1 (CASINO DE INDIANOS AND MURAL DE LA BATALLA DE SALSES)

In this article we are going to talk about very little known oddities of Valencia, which differentiate them from the monuments that all tourists know and which, it would be very interesting to pay a visit

One of the curiosities of Valencia known by very few people, refers to the paintings found in the Molí dels Frares, in the heart of Campanar. In this place, there are some paintings related to the battle of Salses (France), a confrontation that happened in the Thirty Years' War between Spain and France during the 17th century.

 

This mural was discovered in 1994 by the historian Eduard Pérez Lluch, and his discovery was highly valued by the representatives of the Generalitat. In 1997 the then Director General of Heritage, Carmen Pérez, undertook to restore the mural and did so in the presence of the mayor of Salses, Sylvain Dagues, who in August of that same year received in his own village a replica of the mural Perez's hands Later in March of 1998 the Menéndez Pelayo International University organized a congress managed by the Generalitat Valenciana, the Association of Friends of the Military Museums and the Military Museum of Valencia, whose objective was to analyze the mural from the historical point of view. And in December of that same year the Education Commission of the Valencian Corts urged the Consell to acquire the mill, privately owned, and adopt the necessary security measures to prevent deterioration and not lose this gem.

At the moment a replica of the mural in the Military Museum is conserved, but the original one as I have indicated previously is very deteriorated and a place with many humidities which makes its conservation difficult, together with the difficulty to accede to it.

Another marvel worthy of mention, refers to the Casino del Americano located next to Benicalap Park, building like the previous one in a high degree of abandonment, this palace is one of the few Indian mansions that are in Valencia, these buildings They were built by the Indians, people who emigrated to America during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and who returned enriched building these magnificent villas. Of these dwellings are numerous scattered specimens in the North of Spain (Asturias, Cantabria ...), why most of the migrants came from these regions but are scarce in the Levantine area.

In the case of this mansion, it was built in 1869 by order of Joaquín Megía, a soldier from Granada who went to Cuba, who bought some land, which was to be used as a recreational farm to live with his wife, Mercedes González-Larrinaga, a wealthy Havana lady who made a fortune with sugarcane crops, although it became a residence after the marriage to live in Valencia. To this woman, as a tribute, is due the name of "Quinta de Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes" with which it was named at the beginning, by the one who owned it in its beginnings, later going on to be known later as Casino del Americano which is how we know it today. Later it went through different hands, has come to house a private school / nursery (in the 80s) and years later a well-known local leisure called "Saudí Park", until ending in the most complete abandonment.

Although currently, green shoots begin to appear, since the new city council wants to restore it and join it to the park of Benicalap, the damages are very severe, in this context its reactivation along with other buildings would help this neighborhood to move from the residence to the tourist , and also to unite Valencia to the circuit of Indian houses, which is not something marginal, since some of them, like the caprice of Comillas (Cantabria), is considered one of Gaudi's masterpieces.