…and Angels extinguished the Star of the Baroque

Abstract

This text discusses the controversial decision to demolish the Baroque vault in the apse of Valencia cathedral, which it describes and evaluates from a historical and stylistic viewpoint. With his experience in restoration and based on equanimity arising from the historiography of wise and prudent architecture, the author defends the natural right to effective conservation of all the phases of a building. Therefore he regrets that no actual alternatives to demolition, which would have contemplated the possibility of conserving the superposition of all the interventions performed over the centuries instead of prioritising certain periods when they all deserve the same respect, were put forward.