Plaza de la Virgen and the Basilica of Our Lady of the Forsaken

You are on Plaza de la Virgen, the heart of Valencia ever since the Roman forum stood very close by. In front of you is the Basilica of Our Lady of the Forsaken, the Virgen de los Desamparados, joined to the cathedral by a seventeenth-century raised passageway. Inside, Valencians venerate their city's patron, whom they fondly call “la Geperudeta”, the little hunchback.

1A hospital for the mad and the innocent

It all began in 1409, when the Mercedarian friar Joan Gilabert Jofré, according to tradition after seeing some youths mistreating a mentally ill man, promoted the founding of a hospital for “innocents, the mad and the insane”, often considered the first psychiatric hospital in Europe. Shortly afterwards a confraternity was set up to care for the forsaken and to bury the executed and the poor.

2Why she leans forward

The image of the Virgin used to be laid flat on coffins, with a pillow that tipped her head forward. When she was stood upright, she kept that characteristic tilt that gave her the nickname. Tradition also tells that she was carved by three mysterious pilgrims who vanished without a trace, and that they were angels.

3An oval church

The basilica was built between 1652 and 1667 to a design by Diego Martínez Ponce de Urrana. It was the first church with an oval plan in Valencia, and in 1701 Antonio Palomino painted the frescoes of its dome. Every March, during the Fallas Flower Offering, the falleras cover a gigantic mantle of the Virgin with flowers on this square.

For many Valencians, the Geperudeta is less a statue than a member of the family.

4What to look for

• The raised passageway joining the basilica to the cathedral.
• The blue-tiled dome of the basilica.
• The Turia Fountain: the river and its eight irrigation canals turned into sculpture.