page_title: Royal Palace, Valencia
section_title: From demolition to present
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Palace, Valencia / From demolition to present
caption_attribution_description: Català: Capitell romànic amb decoració vegetal procedent del palau del real de València, Museu d'Història de València.
context_page_description: The now vanished Del Real Palace or Royal Palace was the former residence of the kings of Valencia in the «Cap i Casal» of the Kingdom, as the city of Valencia was then called. It was on the left bank of the Turia River, where nowadays Jardines del Real are. It was also known as «300 keys palace» in reference to the number of rooms it had in its heights.
  From 11th to 19th centuries it was royal seat whether for the kings of the Taifa of Valencia or the monarchs of the Crown of Aragon, the Habsburgs and the Bourbons, while it was less appreciated by the latter.
  Late-19th century Valencian political Teodoro Llorente quotes "What happened to you, Palacio del Real? noble mansion of the Valencian monarchs, centre and symbol of our ancient and glorious kingdom All disappeared with the institutions that you represented, the illustrious autonomy of that kingdom that you were head..."
context_section_description: In 1810, during the Peninsular War, in order to deny the palace to the Napoleonic troops and avoid they using it as a bastion against the city, Valencians themselves decided to demolish it, which was absolutely useless. In fact, the demolition was due to a combination of factors: a poor military strategy, the economic needs of the Junta de Defensa and the perception by the bourgeois, liberal classes that this old grand palace was the main symbol of the past. Only some fragment of the coffered ceiling, preserved at the Arxiu del Regne, was saved from its formidable brickwork.
  In 1986 in the wake of a works carried out in the collectors of the city, was lifted the asphalt of street General Elio, and under it were the remains of the palace. After much controversy over whether the remains were to be buried or laid bare, it was decided to bury them because the street is one of the main arteries of the city.
  Earlier year 2009, new tastings with GPR were made, discarding a massive excavation and appear new remains that arouse interest for the palace that was the emblem of the city.
  Although it is clear that the Del Real Palace is irrecoverable, in 1810 was razed to the ground, the illusion of archaeologists is increasing. Excavations at the Viveros garden were made. Archaeologists have unearthed last week the first walls, belonging to the Torre de la Reina. A magnificent tower which was the residence of the Queen Maria, wife of Alfonso V of Aragon, although in the last period of the palace was used as a kitchen. Experts say they are about to stumble upon the foundations of the called Torre del Rey and the large porch of the set of buildings.
  During all these years since the demolition, the only visible building was a small existing mound in the Jardines del Real, known as montañeta del General Elio. It is said consists of the rubble that had accumulated at the time of the destruction of the palace and is now an integral part of the Jardines del Real.
  Nowadays we know accurately how this architectural ensemble was, thanks to the discovery of the palace plans which, drawn in 1802 by military engineer Manuel Cavallero, were deposited in the family archive of Marshall Suchet, governor of Valencia in Napoleonic era. The plans were part of the spoils that the French troops looted and taken to Paris, where they remained ignored until they were fortuitously discovered by professor Josep Vicent Boira in 2004.
caption: Romanesque capital decorated with plant from the Del Real Palace of Valencia, now located in the Museu d'Història de València.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000", "Image DateTime": "2014:07:07 21:26:14", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2332", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "39488", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "39614", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2607", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/20", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:07:03 09:41:55", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:07:07 01:25:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "26", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3017", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3758", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "39418", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "39", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "4CA7D525148340D7AF4B1CC06F96D812", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4126"}