Valencia Art Nouveau: two markets and a station

Mercado Colon

There are a good number of art nouveau buildings in Valencia, and the scattered houses are described in a separate post. This one focuses on the three big structures which should be high on any visitor's hit list. We started at the Mercado Colon, located off to the south east of the centre quite close to the Calle Colon section of the inner ring road. (Colon of course was the man we call Christopher Columbus.)

The market is a simply wonderful building of red brick with a riot of mosaic, ceramic and stone decorative features. The building was inaugurated on New Year’s Eve 1916 and was designed by City architect of the day, Francisco Mora, who was influenced by the Catalan Modernisme movement of Doménech i Montaner, Puig and Cadafalch.

Here is a closer up picture of the top section of the facade.

It no longer functions as a market and was renovated after having fallen into decline and disrepair. The renovation won a European cultural award in 2003. It now calls itself a Gastro Market and houses a selection of bars and cafes.

In the far corner there is a particularly attractive (and rather Gaudi-esque) wine bar where we enjoyed a leisurely lunch.

Now we headed into the centre of the old city to reach the Mercado Central, which still functions as a food market and is open every morning. It opened in 1928 and its style is less purely art nouveau than that of Mercado Colon and more eclectic. It is a much larger building also and its layout is rather like that of a church with three naves and an apse.

The main market hall is capped by a glass dome.

At the far end there are elaborate decorative tiles, glass and stone work.

All around there stained glass with floral patterns and some rather lovely tiled sunflowers (a classic art nouveau motif).

Now we headed towards the southern end of the old city to reach the third great sight, the Estacion del Norte (North Station, slightly oddly given that it is in the south of the old city). It was built 1907-1917 and the architect was Demetrio Ribes. The main facade is absolutely wonderful.

There are towers to the left and right, which currently highlight the station's 100th anniversary.

A more detailed look at one of the entrance doors reveals beautiful stained glass and fruit motifs.

Inside, the booking hall is a riot of decoration. This lovely sign is at the entrance to the main concourse.

The booking hall roof is held up by these magnificent columns.

Conditions: still hot and sunny.

Distance: only a couple of miles.

Rating: five stars.

Rushton and Rothwell

Rushton Triangular Lodge

We owe today's outing with Sally and Malcolm to a TV programme about the English Renaiassance. The presenter, James Fox, described the extraordinary Rushton Triangular Lodge and it came to me that I could base a walk around it.

The Lodge was the work of Sir Thomas Tresham a devout Roman Catholic who lived in nearby Rushton Hall (now a luxury hotel). He was imprisoned for his faith for 12 years under Queen Elizabeth and when finally released he constructed this extraordinary building as an expression of his faith. The principal theme of the building is the Holy Trinity and this is reflected at numerous levels: the Lodge has three sides, and internally three floors, each side has three gables and three sets of windows, the windows have trefoil or triangular patterns. There are also various inscriptions, symbols and numbers, not all of which are understood. It dates from 1593-6.

We arrived just after a party of schoolkids and we were delighted that they were inside while we wandered round the exterior and marveled at it.

At length we began the walk over to nearby Rothwell along an roughly straight path across fields, crossing the tiny river Ise on the way.

Rothwell is a charming market town, but it was the ideal destination because of its most notable feature: the Market House. (Unfortunately unavoidably photographed directly into the sun.)

It was designed by William Grumbold for - yes - Thomas Tresham. It dates from 1578 and also incorporates trefoils, Tresham's coat of arms and inscriptions, but no religious motifs. It is a most impressive small building, looking a little run down now.

Just behind the Market House is the large and imposing Holy Trinity church. We liked the warm colours of the local stone of which it is built.

It is mostly 13th century although the tower dates from the 1170s. The church has one of only two known bone crypts or charnel houses in the country, containing the remains of around 1,500 people.

And just beyond the church lies Jesus Hospital, a lovely set of almshouses founded in 1586 by Owen Ragsdale.

The two buildings which project forward are linked to the main building at the back: an unusual variant on the common E shape for almshouses. The left one has a date stone 1835 and the right one 1855. Perhaps they were sympathetic Victorian additions or renovations.

Conditions: warm and sunny

Distance: four miles

Map: Explorer 224 (Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough)

Rating: Four and a half stars

Old Amersham and Chalfont St Giles

The Market Hall

I met my friend Chris for a Buckinghamshire walk at a sort of midway point between where we each live. We started at the imposing Market Hall in Old Amersham. It was built in 1682 and renovated in 1911. We noticed a sign inside the covered area "Commit no nuisance" and this was apparently over the entrance to the town lock-up. It put me in mind of Google's "Do no evil".

We headed southeast and followed a gently climbing path across fields, with a nice view back towards Old Amersham.

The path continues through woods and across fields to reach the splendidly named Upper Bottom House Farm, where we were charmed by the very young calves.

We climbed a small hill and came down the other side into the charming village of Chalfont St Giles, complete with Norman church, duck pond, village green and old houses.

We decided we must see its most famous building, Milton's Cottage and walked up the High St past this lovely former farmhouse ...

... to reach the 16th century Milton's Cottage, where the great poet wrote Paradise Lost.

As we were taking photos, a woman who was passing by very kindly suggested that we would get a better view by standing on her nearby doorstep. The result, above, is to my mind much better that the picture on the official Milton's Cottage website, which, as my picture would have been, is dominated by the large chimney flue. Thank you again!

We returned to the centre and followed the South Bucks Way along the Misbourne Valley back to Old Amersham. This was a pleasant stroll, but the river, presumably very small, was entirely invisible.

Conditions: cloudy and cool.

Distance: 6.5 miles.

From: Pathfinder Guide 25, Chilterns and Thames Valley.

Map: Explorer 172 (Chiltern Hills East).

Rating: three and a half stars.

Albi

The Cathedral

Our final day in Gaillac and we spend the morning walking around the beautiful city of Albi, now a World Heritage Site. We parked in an underground car park near the Cathedral and emerged outside the wonderful covered market built in 1903.

Then we visited the cloister of the nearby church of Saint-Salvi. It dates from 1270, but only one side remains the rest having been destroyed during the Revolution.

Outside, the church has an unusual tower of stone topped with a brick section and a small castellated turret.

From here we walk down to the cathedral square to face the inspiring bulk of the Cathedral of Ste Cecilia constructed in brick between 1287 to 1480. It is said to be the largest brick building in the world.

To the right is the fortified Bishop's Palace, the Palais de la Berbie, dating from the end of the 13th century, which together with the Cathedral makes a remarkable group of brick built medieval structures. The Palace now houses the excellent Toulouse-Lautrec museum, which we saw on our previous visit in 2005.

Round the back of the Palace you can look down on the gardens and out across the river Tarn.

The gardens have a wonderful array of shapes.

Coming back from the viewing point we were struck by these flowers growing on a wall. They are in fact Wall Flowers. Who knew?

We now walked along the side of the Cathedral furthest from the square and at the end passed this delightful water feature with Moorish arches relocated at the end.

We completed the tour of the Cathedral by passing the wonderful baldaquin - a staggering gothic porch dating from the 16th century over the main entrance to this otherwise forbidding building.

Heading into the town we passed this interesting street of half timbered houses, similar to those we had seen in Gaillac.

And after a while we reached Place Laperouse, named after the 18th century explorer. Our current favourite wine, Astrolabe, is named after one of his ships. At the end of the square is the striking new Grand Théatre, the work of architect Dominique Perrault.

You can just see on the left of the picture a Victorian dome. I went off to investigate and was delighted to find that it was one of a pair marking the corners of what appeared to be a disused market.

We walked back to centre and admired another group of half timbered buildings near the Cathedral before returning to the car park.

Conditions: grey, but not too cold.

Distance: about 3 miles.

Rating: five stars. The Cathedral is an astonishing building and Albi has lots of other interesting stuff.