Hello archi lovers!
Sometimes you have to change, do something different and this post certainly is different. Again we go around close, through our own city where we can continue to be surprised and discover curious corners. It is never too late to learn more about places we think we know.
We have already visited some of those places, the pleasant and impressive Colon Market: Modernism & Modernity.
And now we are going to a place that at first glance does not attract our attention because in reality we barely know that it exists. We pass almost randomly through a narrow street that does not get sunlight, in that dark street for a moment we look to the right, it seems that there is something, what is it?
We stop, there is a plaque where it says the name of the street, it is already different, unique and special, handmade and made in another time. A simple urban detail that already impresses us. Yes, the street is called "Carrer del Pouet de Sant Vicent" (written in the local dialect of the area and it means: The little well of Saint Vincent Street) and next to the beautiful tile sign we look and see other letters engraved in stone.
Because of the typology at first it is somewhat strange, but we read again here "El Pouet de Sant Vicent" ("El Pocito de San Vicente" in Spanish and "The Little Well of Saint Vincent" in English), the well of who is the patron saint of the city, of the city of Valencia in Spain.
It's funny, could it be possible that I've never been here? What will be inside? Can we visit it? The magic of discovering small charming places.
Charming, because we enter with curiosity, which increases with each step, because it's supposedly a church, but what is all that decoration on the walls? The whole wall is decorated with traditional painted tiles, something original, also with detailed history. A nice work of art that so many of us have ignored for a long time…
There they talk about the life of this saint, before he became one, even about his baptism, and much more, because there are some words that tell a story about water or the lack of it during a cholera epidemic somewhere and thanks to the generosity and benevolence of the people of this place distributed water (by train!) from the well in 1854. What well?
The little well that's still there, covered down there in some kind of cave. There are details of the history that stay with us even though we don't even know they exist, in this case, until now.
And we decided to see everything, also the church, because it is a church at the back, with the holy water font and behind it a closed altar like the one we find in many other churches and a main altar presided over by the statue of the holy apostle Saint Vincent Ferrer.
It is a small, charming and very well decorated church, with a beautiful roof with which we enjoyed looking up, and in which we enjoyed the tranquility, because at that time there was no one...
So we go back to the beginning, to the area of the tiles to look at them up close, all the details, to reflect on the history, on the essential that was that small well at the bottom during a specific and difficult time. And in the benevolence of those who lived there then.
The message of all this has a deep meaning and learning, never stop stopping somewhere that catches your eye, never stop fascinating with beautiful architecture and design, never stop discovering small places with history because you can be surprised even in a small dark street in the city that you thought you knew, there is always more...
