Església de Santa Caterina, Valencia

Església de Santa Caterina is a Gothic Catholic church, and its most striking feature is the Baroque bell tower rising beside the church. The building occupies the southern end of Plaza de la Reina and stands on the site of an earlier mosque. Its history reaches back to the early 13th century, when it became a parish church.

Look at the tower’s compact hexagonal form and its five rising levels. Juan Bautista Viñes designed the tower, built between 1688 and 1705. Its measured height is 56.12 metres.

Horizontal mouldings mark the stages, while the bell chamber carries twisted columns and arched openings. Above it, a stone balustrade supports a two-level pavilion capped by a scaled stone cupola, with a globe, weather vane and cross completing the silhouette. The church itself still presents its Gothic exterior, but much of the interior took on Baroque character after a fire in 1548.

A classicist portal belongs to the 16th century, and the building underwent restoration in 1785. The bells were cast in London in 1729. In 1914, a clock was added; during work in 2012, that machinery was removed and an older bell returned. The tower was built where a minaret had stood, giving this landmark an especially layered history of worship, rebuilding and reuse.