Restoration of the Godelleta's Tower
The Godelleta's Tower is classified as a Building of Cultural Interest (BIC) with the category of monument, the highest level of protection granted by Valencian legislation to an historic building.
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In the absence of other documentary data, we can date its construction between the 11th and 13th centuries, a period in which almost all the Islamic towers similar to this one were built around the city of Valencia.
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It has a quadrangular ground plan, with dimensions of approximately 5.25 m on each side at the base, which decreases to approximately 4.60 m at the top, creating a truncated pyramid-shaped volume. The thickness of the walls is approximately 1.30 m at the base and decreases in the ascending direction to only 55 cm at the battlements. It reaches a total height of about 16 m.
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In the first phase, the structural consolidation of the tower - which was in very poor condition- was carried out. There were large cracks running lengthwise, huge holes had opened up at its base and there had been major landslides, which endangered its stability. The cracks were stitched up with fibreglass rods, reintegrating the lost mass of the walls, the inappropriate holes that had opened up in recent times were filled in, and the walls were thoroughly cleaned and consolidated to remove fungus, algae, lichen and general dirt.
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The aim of the second phase of the tower's restoration was its typological recovery and its interior fitting out as a cultural and didactic resource. First of all, an irrelevant building attached to the tower was demolished. The archaeological excavation of the site and the restoration of the outer wall of the tower against which the building was leaning, were carried out. Inside, timber floors were built to match the historical levels of the tower, following the original construction types and the different levels were connected to each other through small openings in the floor slabs by means of simple steel staircases. The original access to the tower on the first level was restored and a steel staircase was built with an ochre concrete base in a contemporary design.
