Josep Lluis Gil i Cabrera
The El Salvador parish church in Burriana is the matrix ecclesia of mediaeval Christianity in the northern counties of the former Kingdom of Valencia, and the first parish church built on conquered lands.
This church, first dedicated to the Virgin by its founder James I, changed its fealty to El Salvador in the mid-14th century. In it, for the first time in Valencian Gothic architecture, rowlock brick vaults with stone ribs would be associated with aedilic construction using ashlars1. It also seems that here for the first time as well apses covered with vaults (made of either brick or stone) would be joined with a single nave covered with ribbed vaults and brick severies. It was a pioneering church in its adoption of the new guidelines set by the mendicant monk orders calling for spacious, airy churches which lent themselves to preaching, following the model of Saint-Etienne in Toulouse, in the French department of Languedoc.
Upon seeing the fragility and danger of the frontiers of the newly colonised lands, the typology of the urban parish church was complemented with defensive modifications to turn it into a fortress-church, with two twin towers fortified with battlements flanking the apse, connected by means of an open walkway through the buttresses. This singular set of features have led this church to be declared a National Historical-Artistic Monument (official state bulletin, BOE, dated 6th May 1969).
This declaration also includes the belfry, which was erected in the second third of the 14th century as a fortress tower of the town palace or town hall, as well as serving as a watchtower and communications tower. Despite this, it is not a freestanding tower such as the ones in Sant Mateu, Castellón, Cervera del Maestrazgo, Benicarló or Vila-real, rather it is a defensive and civil complement, the signal and emblem of the town’s power. This uniqueness and its octagonal shape, as well as its chronology, make it a pioneer in the series of belfries that saw their heyday in Valencian lands starting in the 15th century and kept being built until the 18th century with minimal variations derived from the prevailing styles of the day or the economic means available.
Both the church and the belfry can be visited outside of hours of worship by scheduling a tour by calling the parish telephone on 964 57 00 65. Aware of the wealth of its patrimony, the Burriana town hall offers guided tours; for further information call 964 51 00 62, or check the website
www.burriana.es, which is the news channel of the Burriana town hall.
Vista aérea del Puerto y la Ciudad de Burriana desde el mar Mediterráneo (Foto: Paisajes Españoles)
Vista aérea de la Ciudad de Burriana, en 1988 (Foto: Paisajes Españoles)
Restos de basamento y columna romana (s. I, d.C.) aparecidos durante las recientes obras de restauración en el subsuelo de la iglesia de El Salvador, que confirman la fundación islàmica de la Villa (s. VIII) sobre las ruinas de una antigua villae romana, de donde recibó el nombre.
Vista del conjunto monumental de la Iglesia de El Salvador (Foto: P. Monfort)
Presbiterio gótico de la iglesia parroquial dedicada a Santa Maria por el rey Jaime I.
Xilografía de la villa de Burriana, publicada en 1564 por Rafael Martín de Viciana, en el “Libro Tercero de la Crónica de la Ínclita y Coronada Ciudad de Valencia y de su Reino”, donde da una visión de cómo era la villa en el siglo XIII tras la conquista cristiana, pues en su época ya había crecido por los arrabales.
