Palace of the Borgias, Valencia, Spain

The Palace of Benicarló (officially and in Valencian, Palau de Benicarló) or Palace of the Borja (or Borgia) is an aristocratic mansion of Valencian and Renaissance gothic style located in the city of Valencia, Spain. Currently it is the seat of the Valencian Cortes.

The palace was built in the 15th century for the residence of the Borja or Borgia family in the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Valencia. It is cataloged as Well of Local Relevance with identifier number 46.15.250-132.

History of the palace
The palace was owned by different and important families throughout its history, first belonged to the House of Borja from 1485, was abandoned in the mid- eighteenth century by the Dukes of Gandia, being in ruinous condition. Later it belonged to the House of Benavente and, finally, to the House of Osuna, until the middle of the 19th century, when the palace was sold to the Count of Benicarló. Later, in the mid- nineteenth century, the Pujals family acquired it to establish a silk factory. During the Spanish Civil War it was the seat of the government of theII Spanish Republic installed in Valencia. Currently it is the seat of the Valencian Cortes.

Construction and description of the palace
The palace, commissioned by the Dukes of Gandía in the capital of the then Kingdom of Valencia, constituted for centuries the expression of its preeminence among the local nobility.

The beginning of a construction with pretensions coincided almost with the concession of the dukedom and, without a doubt, was voluntarily persecuted a marked representative character. This criterion explains its urban location and its spectacular dimensions, today mainly observable in its façade and in the hint that it had the rooms of its noble floor. And it remained throughout time, although it languished early after the death of the first two dukes. This decline accelerated when the owners of the title abandoned Valencian lands or it fell into the hands of others who never stepped on them.

The responsibility of the construction of the palace of the Borja in Valencia, was, as well as its possession, different and dominant throughout its history. The first dukes of Gandía and Cardinal Rodrigo de Borja, later Pope Alexander VI, acquired special importance in his commission. With regard to the execution of the work, it is treated with special attention the figure of the prestigious masters of works of the city: Francesc Martínez alias Biulaygua and Pere Compte. In addition to the data that link these architects with the palace, a diachronic exhibition of their contributions is made through the bibliographic analysis, to which we add other important unpublished documentary data, such as the participation ofPere Compte in the convent of Corpus Christi de Luchente (Llutxent), on the bridge of Pajazo (Requena)…

In the location of the palace and its urban insertion we have, on the one hand, the acquired properties on which a new building was built, in order to infer in aspects such as the desires of economy in the work or in the level of autonomy or dependence on what has been built with respect to what has already been found and partially exploited. On the other hand, it delves into the reasons of representativeness that led the Borja to choose the Plaza de San Lorenzo in the city of Valencia as a place to settle one of its palaces. Finally, we find its relationship with the environment: the most immediate, formed by the surrounding streets and private gardens, and another more distant, which is what reaches the view, with the profile of the city and the orchard outside the walls as a horizon.

With regard to the construction process of the building, in its period of greatest activity, from 1485 to 1520, when pre-existing buildings are adapted and others rise, the stone stairway of the courtyard is built by Pere Compte (author of very important works in the City of Valencia as the Lonjaof the Merchants), important works are carried out in the studios, works of stonework in windows and other relevant elements… In these works, in addition to the mentioned masters, numerous architects are named: the bricklayers Juan Agras, Francisco Agras, Joan Vilar…; the carpenters Antoni Munyos, Luis Amorós, Antonio Pérez, Antonio Celma, Joan Perales, Melcior Serra, Guillem Gilabert…; the painters Joan Guillem, Joan Girbes, Martí Girbes, Luis Forment…; the stonemasons Pere Català, Diego de la Roa, García de Vargues – García de Vargas, who we have identified with García de Toledo and whose real name was Danaequo, Joan Bribesques (also named Unnesques, Urcnesques, Viciesques, Brebesques, Biruesta, Bribesca, Virnescas or Virnesques), Pere Alcanyis, Joan Corbera…

In its construction, although no direct antecedents are presented, it is true that the influence of this family in the architecture resulted in the creation of types, models and solutions taken that were previously practiced in a series of manor houses and religious foundations of the Borja, that by its chronology or typology serves to understand solutions of the Valencian palace. This shows the stately homes of Torre de Canals and Játiva, the ducal palace of Gandía, the county of Oliva, and other houses in Valencia, with special attention to that of Caballeros street, which was owned until the 16th century by the Centelles.

The care of the work and its transformations aimed at greater habitability was delegated to the most outstanding architects and active artists in the capital. In short, his analysis allows us to understand his evolution between grandiloquent aspirations and iniquitous oblivion.

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Corts Valencianes
The Corts Valencianes (Valencian pronunciation: [ˈkoɾ(d)z valensiˈanes]), commonly known as Les Corts ([les ˈkoɾ(t)s]), are the main legislative body of the Generalitat Valenciana and therefore of the Valencian Country. The main location of the Corts is in the Palace of the Borgias in Valencia; however it can meet at any location in the Valencian lands. The Corts has its origins in bodies established in the thirteenth century by King James I of Aragon. The modern institution was established in 1982 under the Valencian statute of autonomy of 1982. The current Corts were elected in 2015.

History
Following the conquest and reign of James I of Aragon, the economic and military needs of the Crown of Aragon justified some meetings of the king with representatives of the three social classes (the nobility, who controlled the military forces, the church and the middle class), to obtain military or financial services. The economic needs justified those meetings, and at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a stable institution called the Corts Valencianes had already been established.

Among the meetings which were held during the reign of James I, the most important was that of 7 April 1261 in Valencia, during which the king promulgated the Furs of Valencia, a series of charters equivalent to a modern constitution. Proof of the economic importance of the corts for the crown is that the king promulgated the Furs in exchange for the sum of 48,000, which were paid to him by the city of Valencia, by the cities of the Horta de València which belonged to the clergy and to the nobility, and by the towns of Castelló, Vilafamés, Onda, Llíria, Corbera, Cullera and Gandia.

At the time of those corts, King James established a rule for his successors obliging them to organise a general cort in Valencia at the beginning of each reign, in the first month after their entry into the city. This obligation was renewed during the corts of 1271, the corts were summoned by James I and later by his son Peter III of Aragon. Those Corts were the only obligatory meetings, but the king summoned the corts on other occasions when required.

In 1302, James II decided that it was necessary to summon the corts every three years. Later, during the corts of 1336, Peter IV confirmed this triennial meeting, by specifying that the corts were to meet every three years on All Saints’ Day.

During the thirteenth century and at the beginning of the fourteenth, the representations of the other cities in the Kingdom of Valencia were gradually added, until the corts of 1239, during which the representations of various territories met, already constituting the corts of all the Kingdom.

From that moment, the most important cities always met, while others attended depending on the relevance to them of the subjects being discussed. However, the representation was generally important. For example, in the Corts of Valencia of 1510, the following towns were represented: Ademús, Alacant, Alcoi, Alpuente, Alzira, Biar, Bocairent, Borriana, Cabdet, Castelló, Castielfabib, Cullera, Llíria, Morella, Ontinyent, Orihuela, Penàguila, Peníscola, València, Vila Joiosa, Vila-real, Xàtiva, Xèrica and Xixona. Half of the assemblies took place in Valencia cathedral.

The Valencian Corts of 1418, fixed the duration of the corts at three years. In the middle of the fifteenth century, the Valencian institutions were definitively established.

With the unification of the crowns of Castille and Aragon, the Valencian corts declined in importance and were less frequently convened during the sixteenth century, a trend that continued in the seventeenth century. The last corts met in Valencia in 1645. Finally, after the War of the Spanish Succession and the new decree of 1707, the Kingdom of Valencia and its local rights were abolished.

The Corts Valencianes were not convened again until their reestablishment under the Statute of Autonomy of 1982. As of the coming into effect of the Statute of Autonomy, the Corts have operated like a modern representative legislature. Although usually meeting in the provincial capital of Valencia city, they have met in various towns around the Valencian community in recent years, an initiative which has been developed by the most recent legislatures.

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