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Valencia’s Castro y Bellvis

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In the world of 5-star hotels, Valencia holds a unique position.  Holding the biggest coastline on the western Mediterranean, there is a long and extremely fascinating history of contact with other cultures.  Having food and drink as a major export, there is a love of cuisine here that holds exceptional promise, and great rewards, for the curious palate.  Valencia oranges, of course, come from here, and so does paella.  There are thousands of recipes for paella, and different schools of thought on its modifications and evolutions.  Enough so that any conversation about paella will be endlessly fascinating, if not a bit heated.  Guests here will be treated to the excellent menus by our own chefs, 24 hour room service, and also the entire city, to investigate its food.

Visitors here are always dumbstruck at the incredible architecture.  There are sites that date back to the Roman occupation, and also the most cutting edge design for some of the newer buildings.  In between these ages there was the Renaissance, and Valencia was one of Spain’s most active cities in terms of artistic output.  One of its favorite sons is the playwright Guillén de Castro y Bellvis.  He lived between 1569-1631, and he is remembered best for his plays which rework and reinvent romances, epics, and adaptations of myths and legends.  Although he was a nobleman by birth, held government and military posts, and was even knighted, he died in poverty in Madrid, and charities paid for his funeral expenses.

His legacy is deeply felt, however, not only for the generous use of verse and romantic flights of fancy, as demonstrated in plays like El Curioso Impertinente, but also because the great Lope de Vega dedicated a play to him, Las Almenas de Toro.  Also, his plays inspired other works by Fletcher, and Calderón, and his Las Mocedades del Cid and Las hazañas del Cid were the first dramatizations of the El Cid story.  El Cid has, of course, great importance throughout Spain, but in Valencia holds a specific place in history.  Ask the locals.  It’s a good story.

Related posts:

1. Valencia’s José Iturbi

Tags: Bellvis, Castro, El Curioso Impertinente, five star hotels, Valencia

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