This gallery at IVAM houses a 68-linear-metre section of the former medieval wall of València. The city walls were a defining feature of València during the Middle Ages, to the extent that one of the city’s earliest coats of arms depicted a fortified city surrounded by the waters of the Turia. This symbolic representation has survived to the present day, even after the physical walls were demolished, through numerous popular religious prints.
The definitive wall of València was built from 1356 onwards, when King Pere IV the Ceremonious asked the city’s jurats to accelerate the construction of a new enclosure due to the threat posed by attacks from King Pere I the Cruel of Castile. The new walls were intended to enclose the suburbs and the Islamic wall, which was still in use at the time. The works were directed by the stonemason Guillem Nebot.
The works, which were extensive and extremely costly, continued throughout the second half of the 14th century and, in some sections, were not completed until the beginning of the 15th century. It is worth recalling the creation of the “Fàbrica de la Junta de Murs i Valls”, an institution of the former Kingdom of València responsible for the construction and maintenance of the moats, towers and walls of the city’s fortifications. This body operated autonomously from the City Council, the Generalitat and the King, with its own funding supported by a tax levied on grain entering the city.
The two archaeological excavations carried out on the site of the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, the first in 1987 and the second in 2023, have made it possible to document a relatively substantial section of the late medieval wall, while also providing insight into the physical aspects of its construction. It consists of a rammed-earth wall made up of layers of compacted earth, between 13 and 15.5 cm thick, alternating with thin layers of lime, using a technique known as tapia valenciana. The structure is reinforced with scattered bricks and externally faced with mortar, forming a strong crust in which bricks were also used. The foundations of the wall preserve a height equivalent to two layers of rammed earth, resting on a footing and measuring 2.50 metres in thickness. In its current state, up to 2.20 metres of the wall remained buried. The interior of the foundations was made of a mortar composed of stone and lime. Other sections of the late medieval enclosure, also studied through archaeological methods, were built using a shuttered-mortar technique, with formwork boxes averaging 1.14 metres in height and a distance of 2.30 metres between the putlog holes.
The walls created a new urban area, at least doubling the size of the city. This expansion was so substantial that when the enclosure was demolished five centuries later, from 1865 onwards, the area within the walls had still not been completely built up.
The walls have been regarded as one of the city’s most distinctive symbols and formed part of a broader system that included walls, towers and gates. As Joseph Llop wrote in 1674: “Aquesta Insigne Ciutat de Valencia no sols esta ilustrada ab la hermosura de les Torres y muralles, sino tambe amb la Fabrica dels Portals grans, y chichs, entre els quals, los de Serrans y Quart, tenen la obra mes hermosa de torres, que se ha vist, fetes a despeses de la Ilustre Fabrica de Murs e Valls…”.
The walls formed, through their internal structure, part of a broader symbolic system that was at once centrifugal and centripetal. On the periphery, marking the outermost boundaries, stood the “Cruces de Término” (boundary crosses), always oriented outwards. Closer in were the walls, complemented by the series of bridges spanning the Guadalaviar River. At the centre, surrounded by increasingly tall towers, stood the “Campanar Nou de la Seu”, whose construction began at the same time as the walls. The Miguelete, the bell that marked the hours, regulated the passage of time, while the liturgical bells served as a reference for opening and closing “the small and large gates of the wall”.
Between October and December 2023, intervention works were carried out on the section of the wall preserved at IVAM. The works included the completion of the archaeological excavation opened at the foot of the wall, on the intramural side, between two footings supporting circular pillars at the northern end of the Gallery. The excavation reached a depth of -1.50 metres and documented the original foundations of the medieval wall, consisting of a lime-mortar rammed-earth structure, built as shuttered masonry using wooden boards, with a documented height of 1.10 metres. The beginning of the second foundation layer was reached, and the results were compared with the excavation carried out by Vicent Lerma and Julio Blasco in 1987. The sterile soils documented in section consisted of Quaternary deposits accumulated through alluvial processes and subsequent deposits from the Turia River. Above these, evidence was found of cultivated agricultural soil dating from the period of the first Valencian Taifa (11th century).
Cleaning work also continued on the vertical surface of the wall, both on the intramural and extramural sides, revealing elements of its building technique and construction process. These included the identification of putlog holes, half-bricks embedded in the so-called tapia valenciana, a technique characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries (although it continued to be used until the 19th century), as well as the height of the rammed-earth layers and the sequence of clay and lime courses within the core of the wall, visible in its northern section.
Work continued to identify construction remains in the vertical walls, and final cleaning work began on the horizontal section of the wall — the upper part that has been preserved. Numerous remains of inappropriate materials from the 1988–89 construction works were identified, generally consisting of soil mixed with rubble and ash. These were removed and the surface was cleaned, highlighting and enhancing the visibility of the construction techniques, particularly the putlog holes, which run through the wall and enable a clearer understanding of its historical construction.
Remains of 19th-century structures were also identified and have been preserved, including ironwork and furnaces (three partially preserved remains), drainage systems and possible domestic storage areas dating from the late 19th to the early 20th century.
