Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos

Brief information

The Academy of San Carlos is important not only as an art school: its history explains why the educational institution and Valencia’s main art museum came to be linked by a single building. The academy grew out of the earlier Academy of Santa Barbara, created at the request of Valencian painters, and was then re-established by Charles III in 1768 as the Royal Academy of the Three Noble Arts.

As the number of students grew, in 1838 the academy was given the buildings of the El Carmen monastery. There, alongside the classes, art collections expanded, and these later formed the museum. In 1913 the museum was separated from the academy, but in 1942 both institutions moved to the former Catholic seminary of Saint Pius V. That is why the present location can be read as a building where the educational and museum strands once again stand side by side.

What to notice right away

The original text hardly describes architectural details, so a reliable focus for looking around here is built not on decoration, but on the building’s functions. It makes sense to notice the shell itself of the former seminary of Saint Pius V: a religious educational building became home to an academy of arts and a museum. The second important detail is the proximity of the academy and the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia within the same building. This is not an accidental placement: the museum grew out of the academic collections, was officially separated, but physically ended up next to the academy again.

Another layer helps explain the current structure of the place: the academy consists of faculties of architecture, sculpture, drawing and engraving, as well as music. Even without a detailed description of the halls, this shows that the building is connected not with a single technique or collection, but with several forms of artistic education.