1- CANVAS PAINTING BY JOSÉ BENLLIURE
TRANSCRIPTION: The Vision of Saint Vincent Ferrer Preaching the Last Judgment
Before you stands one of the most monumental and singular works by José Benlliure Gil, one of the great figures of Valencian and Spanish painting between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This immense canvas, approximately six metres high and four metres wide, occupies a fundamental place within the artistic heritage of the Royal College of the Piarist Schools of Valencia.
The painting we see today is the result of a long artistic and symbolic evolution. Its origins date back to around 1900, when Benlliure began working on a vast composition entitled The Valley of Jehoshaphat on the Day of the Last Judgment.
The subject came from biblical tradition and especially from the texts of the prophet Joel, which describe the Last Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, near Jerusalem. Benlliure drew inspiration from passages describing the resurrection of the dead, divine judgment, and the separation between salvation and damnation.
The work was conceived as a monumental exhibition painting, following the model of the great historical and visionary canvases that triumphed in the major European salons of the time. Benlliure himself hoped to repeat the success he had achieved with The Vision of the Colosseum, one of his most celebrated paintings.
To prepare this composition, the painter developed a highly complex creative process. Photographs survive showing Benlliure working on the canvas in his Roman studio, together with preparatory sketches, studies, and even a curious handwritten French manuscript describing in detail the scene of the Last Judgment and the figures that were to appear within it.
In this first version, the composition included characters inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, such as Dante and Beatrice, alongside saints, penitents, the condemned, and crowds emerging amid dark skies and apocalyptic landscapes.
But the history of the painting changed completely some years later.
On the occasion of the Fifth Centenary of the death of Saint Vincent Ferrer in 1919, Benlliure decided to transform the work profoundly. He replaced the central figures of Dante and Beatrice with the monumental presence of the Valencian saint preaching from the pulpit of Valencia Cathedral.
The painter himself explained this transformation in an extraordinary letter addressed to the Dominican friar Luis Urbano Lanaspa. In it, he described how he imagined Saint Vincent Ferrer “as the Angel of the Apocalypse”, appearing almost in a nocturnal vision, exhorting humanity towards repentance with supernatural intensity.
Benlliure explained that he mentally envisioned his paintings before painting them, especially when dealing with fantastic or visionary scenes. According to his own words, when surrounded by darkness, the images appeared before him with great clarity, and he then attempted to transfer them faithfully onto the canvas.
For this reason, the figure of Saint Vincent Ferrer acquires an almost theatrical and prophetic presence here. Observe his gesture, the tension in his hands, the intensity of his gaze, and the movement of his body. The saint becomes the spiritual axis of the entire composition, visually separated from the crowd as though speaking from another dimension.
Around him, Benlliure unfolds an extraordinary repertoire of human emotions. Fear, hope, repentance, astonishment, and faith are reflected in the faces and gestures of dozens of figures. The aim was to provoke a powerful emotional impact on the viewer.
The painting later began a long international journey. It was exhibited in cities such as Munich, Stuttgart, and Leipzig, before continuing through other European cultural centres including Warsaw, Kraków, and Lemberg.
At that time, such major exhibitions not only served to sell artworks, but also to consolidate the international prestige of artists. Benlliure used this monumental canvas as a true artistic statement before the European public.
When the work was presented in Valencia in 1919, during the celebrations dedicated to Saint Vincent Ferrer at the Pontifical University, its impact was enormous. Valencian newspapers even publicly demanded that the painting should remain permanently in the city.
Finally, in 1953, the painter’s daughter, María Benlliure, donated the canvas to the Royal College of the Piarist Schools of Valencia, thus fulfilling her father’s wish, who himself had once been a student of this institution.
Since then, this work has become inseparable from the history of the college and from Valencia’s artistic heritage.
Today, more than a century after its creation, The Vision of Saint Vincent Ferrer Preaching the Last Judgment continues to impress through its scale, narrative power, and extraordinary ability to unite painting, spirituality, and human emotion within a single image.
2- THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF THE PIARIST SCHOOLS OF VALENCIA
TRANSCRIPTION: THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF THE PIARIST SCHOOLS OF VALENCIA
Before entering the church and contemplating its great dome, it is worth pausing for a moment to understand the place in which we stand. The Royal College of the Piarist Schools of Valencia is not only a monumental building: it is an educational institution deeply connected to the social, cultural and spiritual history of the city.
Its origins date back to the 18th century, a period of transformation in education and urban life in Valencia. The arrival of the Piarists responded to a very specific need: to provide education for children, especially those who had little or no access to formal learning. The spirit of Saint Joseph Calasanz, founder of the Piarist Schools, was based on a revolutionary idea for its time: education should be open to all, combining intellectual instruction, human formation and Christian values.
The first schools were established in very modest conditions. As Daniel Benito explains, the original building used by the religious community and the students was in such poor condition that the architects consulted advised abandoning it for safety reasons. At this decisive moment, Archbishop Andrés Mayoral emerged as one of the great figures behind the project. A leading personality of the Valencian Enlightenment, he provided the support and resources needed to consolidate the institution. While the Count of Carlet promoted the foundation, Daniel Benito emphasizes that the true founder was Archbishop Mayoral himself.
Mayoral did not conceive the project merely as a religious institution, but as an educational enterprise of major social importance. His interest in teaching formed part of a broader vision of cultural and civic progress. Through his support, schools, libraries and educational initiatives flourished throughout Valencia. In the case of the Piarist Schools, his patronage allowed the college to grow into one of the leading educational centres of its time.
The institution combined two complementary realities. On one hand were the public schools, where poor children could receive free education. On the other was the Andresian Seminary or College, founded in 1763 by Archbishop Mayoral himself, intended for the education of resident students. The Seminary had its own regulations, teaching staff and curriculum, offering studies in reading, writing, Latin, humanities, rhetoric, arithmetic, geography, sacred and secular history, Greek and French.
The importance of the Andresian Seminary was extraordinary. Daniel Benito describes it as one of the great pedagogical models of its era, to the point of being considered the finest Piarist college in Spain during the 18th century. Its prestige attracted distinguished professors and students who would later become prominent figures in science, culture and public life. Among the personalities linked to its history are Gabriel Císcar y Císcar, José Pizcueta y Gallel and Manuel Sanchis Guarner, among others.
The Piarist motto, “Piety and Letters,” perfectly summarizes the spirit of the institution. Its purpose was not simply to transmit knowledge, but to form individuals. Education was understood as a union of intellectual development, discipline, humanistic culture, spiritual life and social responsibility. Within the Andresian Seminary, students participated in literary academies, public exercises and educational practices designed to cultivate both intelligence and character.
Over time, the Royal College became much more than a school. It evolved into a centre of culture, learning and civic presence within the city. Located in the historic district of Velluters, traditionally associated with the silk trade and artisan activity, the Piarist Schools introduced an educational dimension that profoundly shaped the neighbourhood. The complex became a landmark for generations of Valencians — a place where teaching, religion, architecture and urban life naturally converged.
Nineteenth-century sources still highlighted this dual character: the monumentality of the building and its social mission. A guide published in 1841 described the college as spacious, well ventilated and directed by learned teachers, specifically noting that poor children received free education there.
For this reason, visiting the Royal College of the Piarist Schools today means far more than entering a historic monument. It means discovering an institution founded to educate, to open paths toward knowledge and to place learning at the centre of civic life. The church, the dome, the cloister, the Benlliure painting and the educational spaces all belong to the same story: that of a place where architecture was placed at the service of an educational, cultural and spiritual mission.
That is the true meaning of the Royal College: not only a monumental space, but also a living memory of Valencian education.
3- THE CHURCH OF SAINT JOACHIM
TRANSCRIPTION: THE CHURCH OF SAINT JOACHIM
The Church of Saint Joachim is one of the great masterpieces of Spanish Classicism in the 18th century and one of the most remarkable architectural spaces in Valencia. Integrated into the complex of the Royal College of the Piarist Schools, it was conceived as the spiritual and symbolic centre of the institution founded by the Piarists in the city, during a period of profound cultural transformation driven by the Enlightenment and the rise of Valencian academic Classicism. From the outset, its monumental dome became one of Valencia’s great urban landmarks, visible from many points across the historic centre.
Construction of the college began in 1739 thanks to the decisive support of the Count of Carlet and, above all, Archbishop Andrés Mayoral, one of the great enlightened patrons of Valencia and the principal promoter of the Piarist foundation in the city. The college building was completed in 1742, while the monumental church was designed later as the spiritual and architectural culmination of the complex.
The conception of the church fully reflected the ideals of the new academic Classicism promoted by European academies of fine arts and, in Spain, by the recently founded Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and later the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia. In contrast to the emotional dynamism of the Baroque, the new architecture sought to recover the geometric clarity, proportion, stability and balance inspired by Classical Antiquity.
Within this context, the Church of Saint Joachim emerged as a space shaped by geometric reason and symbolic monumentality. Its circular plan and monumental dome directly evoke the Pantheon of Agrippa in Rome and other great classical models reinterpreted through the enlightened sensibility of the 18th century. Here, architecture becomes a manifestation of mathematical and spiritual harmony.
The project involved some of the leading Valencian architects and artists of the time, including José Puchol and Antonio Gilabert, one of the key figures of Valencian Neoclassicism and also responsible for the great classical reform of Valencia Cathedral. The church represents one of the most advanced examples of the new academic language developed in Valencia during the second half of the 18th century.
Its extraordinary dome, approximately 24.5 metres in diameter and nearly 48 metres high, is considered one of the largest in Europe built entirely in brick masonry. Its structure constitutes a true technical and architectural achievement. The perfect distribution of loads, the geometric purity of the space and the progressive verticality of the architectural orders create a powerful sensation of ascension and monumental lightness.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the building is its treatment of natural light. Architecture here does not use light merely as a functional element, but as a genuine architectural material capable of shaping space and reinforcing its symbolic dimension. Light enters in a carefully orchestrated manner through the upper lantern and the drum windows, progressively illuminating the sculptures, architectural orders and the vast interior rotunda.
Much of the sculptural decoration of the church was created by Ignacio Vergara, one of the most important figures of Spanish academic sculpture in the 18th century and director of the Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos. The monumental Evangelists and the great relief of the high altar are among his works. His brother José Vergara, one of the great Valencian painters of Enlightenment academicism, also contributed to the church as the author of the main altarpiece painting.
The interior of the church perfectly reflects the ideals of academic Classicism: compositional clarity, spatial hierarchy, serene monumentality and a harmonious balance between architecture, sculpture and light. The verticality of the space visually guides the eye towards the great upper lantern, symbolically reinforcing the idea of spiritual ascension.
The recent comprehensive restoration of the dome has made it possible to recover much of its original splendour and to study in depth both its structural behaviour and its historic construction systems. The intervention included three-dimensional surveys, material analyses, the artisanal recovery of ceramic elements and the structural consolidation of numerous damaged sectors. The project received the Europa Nostra Award 2026, one of Europe’s highest recognitions in cultural heritage conservation.
Today, the Church of Saint Joachim and the Royal College of the Piarist Schools remain a living space where architecture, history, spirituality and culture continue to engage in dialogue with the city. The monument hosts cultural visits, educational activities, concerts and new artistic experiences that allow visitors to rediscover one of Valencia’s great heritage treasures through a contemporary perspective.