Església de Sant Nicolau, Valencia

Església de Sant Nicolau is a parish church whose Gothic structure carries an extraordinary Baroque painted interior. The building you see belongs to the Valencian Gothic tradition and is dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari and Saint Peter Martyr. Look at the broad portal opening onto Sant Nicolau Square: this frontage is a Neo-Gothic work from the nineteenth century.

Inside, the nave is lined with chapels, while frescoes narrate episodes from the lives of the two patron saints and surround them with virtues and allegorical figures. Antonio Palomino devised the pictorial programme, and Dionís Vidal carried it out between 1697 and 1700. The architectural transformation that shaped this interior took place from 1690 to 1693, under Juan Pérez Castiel.

A gated chapel beside the church preserves the memory of the parish cemetery and is known as the Fossar. There is also a remarkable papal connection: Alfonso de Borja served as rector here before becoming Pope Callixtus III. On the wall beside the portal, a ceramic plaque recalls Saint Vincent Ferrer’s prediction that Borja would reach the papacy and later canonize Ferrer.