Jardin De Parcent

This guide to the Jardin de Parcent in Valencia starts with what is missing: until 1965, this square block held the city's second-largest palace, smaller only than the cathedral. It follows the Cernesio family, Italian silk merchants who began buying up houses here in 1635 and kept absorbing their neighbors' walls until the whole plot became one palace, becoming counts of Parcent by 1649 and rich enough that Joseph Bonaparte stayed under their roof for two weeks in 1812. Along the way you will hear how the fortune eventually moved to Madrid and the palace was rented out piece by piece, to a workshop, a school, a society for the blind. Look for the carved stone archway at the entrance, the one fragment of the old palace that was saved.