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Origin and history

The Valencian Pendant is a Renaissance-style funeral monument built in 1548 in Valencia, at the initiative of Canon Nicolas Mistral, from a rich family of merchants. Designed to serve as a chapel and a family tomb, it is distinguished by its arch in pendants, an architectural innovation where pendants form the dome without interruption. Originally decorated with stained glass, ironwork and surmounted by a copper cap, it was looted and damaged during the religious wars, losing much of its original fascist.

Madeleine de Vaches, a Mistral heiress, undertook a restoration around 1630, adding an arrow in varnished tiles in 1636. However, the monument again fell into disuse after his death. Sold as a national property in 1796, it became a commercial store before being bought by the city in 1831. Thanks to the intervention of Prosper Mérimée and the Commission des Monuments Historiques, he was one of the first monuments classified in France in 1840, saving this masterpiece of the Renaissance.

The building is located today Place du Pendant, in Old Valencia, near the Cathedral of Saint-Apollinaire. Its bold architecture, combining molasses and pendant vaults, makes it an exceptional witness to the technical innovation of the sixteenth century. Initially integrated into the cloister of the cathedral, it also illustrates the historical upheavals suffered by the religious heritage, between abandonment, lay reuse and heritage preservation.

The design of the Pendant marks a break with the architectural traditions of the time. Unlike conventional pendants, which provide a transition between a square support and a circular dome, Valencia's pendants assemble to form the vault directly, following the arches in the middle of the brackets. This technique, unheard of at the time, earned him a lasting recognition in the history of French architecture.

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