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The University facilities were ruined. A report by the
municipal architect Cristóbal Sales in 1813 called for
urgent repairs, but they were delayed.
Reconstruction started with the library. Three rooms
lined with shelves decorated with pilasters and cornices
made of pine and pear wood and wire netting doors made
by the carpenter Mauro Comín in 1837, held all the books
belonging to Vicente Blasco, Domingo Mascarós, Mariano
Liñán, Francisco Borrull and other Faculty members,
together with books from convents that had closed,
including the magnificent collection of codices from San
Miguel de los Reyes.
However, on reconstructing the buildings it was
necessary to unify the property using criteria of
symmetry and classic syntax to make the external shape a
true expression of the internal reality. Therefore, a
plan of the building was commissioned to the academic
Timoteo Calvo Ibarra (1799-1879) by the university
Faculty in 1839. Work began in 1840 to extend the model
for the library façade designed by Joaquín Martínez to
the entire front in la Nave street, with an austere and
elegant frontispiece in the centre. At the same time the
rectoral courtyard was remodelled in the style of a
small Renaissance castle, finished in 1842. Round
arches, pateras, niches with stucco and medallions by
Bernardo Llácer compose an allegory of the teaching of
the times, with a symbolic representation of the four
faculties: Science, Medicine, Arts and Law.
The main patio was renovated in 1844 – 1845, erecting a
peristyle of Doric order columns with an entablature on
the sides that give on to the theatre and the entrance
in la Nave street. The renovation was completed in 1871
by Sebastián Monleón (1815-1878) who was in charge of
several other improvements including the construction of
the meteorological observatory (1861), the rectory hall
(1864) and the reform of the university theatre, where
he built a new door to replace the former two, giving
the theatre its current layout. The Natural History
Museum (1872-1877), concluded by Antonio Martorell
(1845-1930), was another of his works, with an
interesting glazed roof on iron supports. Martorell,
with the help of Luis Ferreres (1852-1926) also
continued the works on the façade in la Universidad
and Salvá streets to “give unity and a
decorous appearance” to the building, and aligned the
streets, since he was concerned not only with the
monument itself but with the urban environment “visibly
improving transit and public adornment in this central
part of the town”.
In 1880 the statue of Luis Vives by the sculptor José
Aixá (1834-1920), cast in bronze in one piece by Vicente
Ríos in the workshops of La Primitiva Valenciana,
was erected in the centre of the courtyard. On the
occasion of the festivities to commemorate the
four-hundredth anniversary of the University’s
foundation, 17 medallions with busts in relief of
personages connected with the history of the institution
were placed in the courtyard. |
