{"id":80450,"date":"2026-09-04T06:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/80450\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T06:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:05:15","slug":"this-october-31-in-downtown-valencia-the-building-constructed-on-the-site-of-a-former-convent-is-hosting-a-halloween-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/80450\/","title":{"rendered":"This October 31 in downtown Valencia: the building constructed on the site of a former convent is hosting a Halloween concert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Circle-Photo-Collage-19-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\" alt=\"Drawing of the former Convent of San Francisco in Valencia.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEditorial credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether you watched the masclet\u00e1s there during the Fallas or stumbled upon it on your way to <a href=\"https:\/\/valenciasecreta.com\/puestos-mercado-central-valencia\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/valenciasecreta.com\/puestos-mercado-central-valencia\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_0\" data-category=\"click_internal\">the Central Market<\/a>: anyone who\u2019s been to Valencia has been to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. It\u2019s unavoidable. But what you probably didn\u2019t know is that a (huge) 13th-century convent once stood on this very spot, which expanded thanks to donations from Valencian nobles who wanted to be buried there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A large tract of land that is now home to such iconic city buildings as the Rialto Theater, the Communications Palace, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/feverup.com\/en\/valencia\/venue\/ateneo-mercantil-de-valencia\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/feverup.com\/en\/valencia\/venue\/ateneo-mercantil-de-valencia\" data-action=\"text_cta_1\" data-tracked=\"1\" data-category=\"click_sales\" data-cp_smn_source=\"valenciasecreta\" data-cp_smn_content=\"halloween-concert-at-the-ateneo-mercantil-in-valencia\" data-cp_smn_term=\"text_cta_1\">Ateneo Mercantil<\/a>, where on October 31\u2026 a candlelit concert dedicated to Halloween will be held.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCandlelight: Halloween Classics\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Convent of San Francisco: The History Beneath the Plaza del Ayuntamiento<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Photo-Collage-22-1024x683.png\" alt=\"On the left is Tosca i Masc\u00f3\u2019s plan of the Convent of San Francisco, and on the right is Valencia City Hall\" class=\"wp-image-89125\"  \/>Editorial credits: Tom\u00e0s Vicent Tosca i Masc\u00f3 and Demiannnn \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither the Tiger on Periodista Azzati Street nor the pharmacy on the corner existed when King James I of Aragon founded the Convent of San Francisco on the site of today\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/valenciasecreta.com\/en\/new-aesthetic-for-town-hall-square\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/valenciasecreta.com\/en\/new-aesthetic-for-town-hall-square\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_2\" data-category=\"click_internal\">Plaza del Ayuntamiento<\/a>. That was in the year 1239. Little by little, as donations poured in from the (many) Valencian nobles who wished to be buried there, the boundaries of the property began to expand. After several renovations in the years that followed, the convent\u2019s heyday came between the 14th and 17th centuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, starting in 1823, the friars began sharing the space with troops after part of the convent was converted into barracks. The mid-19th-century secularization decrees (under which the government ordered the closure of convents with fewer than 12 professed monks) led to the definitive dissolution of the San Francisco Convent. The building was finally demolished in 1891, and it was on that site that construction began on the current City Hall Plaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result? One of the most significant urban transformations in downtown Valencia.<\/p>\n<p>Practical information about the Halloween concert in Valencia<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udcc5 When: Saturday, October 31, 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udd52 Time: 9:00 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udccd Where: Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia (Plaza del Ayuntamiento, 18)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Tickets: <a href=\"https:\/\/feverup.com\/m\/658977\/en\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/feverup.com\/m\/658977\/en\" data-action=\"text_cta_3\" data-tracked=\"1\" data-category=\"click_sales\" data-cp_smn_source=\"valenciasecreta\" data-cp_smn_content=\"halloween-concert-at-the-ateneo-mercantil-in-valencia\" data-cp_smn_term=\"text_cta_3\">starting at \u20ac17.50<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editorial credit: Wikimedia Commons Whether you watched the masclet\u00e1s there during the Fallas or stumbled upon it on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[95],"class_list":["post-80450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-valencia","tag-valencia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}