Quart Towers ( Torres de Quart Valencian ) are a pair of twin towers which were part of the medieval wall surrounding the old city of Valencia, whose function was to defend the city. They are located at the intersection of Guillen de Castro street with street Quart . Quart Towers were built by the " professors in the noble art of pedra " Francesc Baldomar and Pere Compte in the fifteenth century , between the years 1441 and 1460 . The works also involved Thomas Oller and Jaume Pérez . The style is late Gothic towers military imitating or Arc de Triomphe towers of Castel Nuovo in Naples , designed by the Spaniard Segrera and which involved other teachers of the Crown of Aragon when Naples was conquered by the troops of Alfonso V the magnanimous . These walled towers have withstood the War of Independence from the French, the Succession , the cantonal and the Spanish Civil War . You can still see traces of the impacts caused by the guns of the War of Independence in the thick walls , many people think they are caused by the deterioration of time. In 1931 it was declared a National Monument and is named in the law 16/1985 on Spanish Historical Heritage . Las Torres de Quart are the remains of the ancient medieval walls of Valencia, together with the Serranos open to the north. Other gateways to the city of Valencia, were the missing doors of St. Vincent to the south and the Puerta del Mar to the east or to the port . These doors disappeared in the nineteenth century with the rest of the wall that surrounded the Ciutat Vella to provide work for unemployed workers and to enlarge the city. From the last decade of the twentieth century , parrots and other exotic birds breaks the owners, have nested and reproduced in the holes caused by the artillery of its exterior . Already in the XXI century , the Torres de Quart are still standing , and in the process of restoration of its exterior , blackened by soot incessant traffic flowing down the street Quart and Calle Guillem de Castro . Las Torres de Quart are named after they were placed on the road leading from the center of the city, from the Plaza de la Virgen where the Cathedral of Valencia, to the village of Quart de Poblet. The towers were west traffic access from Castile. A Quart Towers also been called portal door or door Cuarte and lime. Las Torres de Quart are built of masonry with lime and songs by the boxed system . At the corners , arches, and flying body upper masonry bricks used . Between the two towers there is an entrance and exit to the city of arch surrounded by stalls , which housed the guardian angel and now the shield of the city. The towers have a cylindrical plan outward from the city and tapered or flattened into the wall , unlike the Serranos are polygonal . The towers have a crenellated top , on a terrace of masonry . These defensive towers are just decoration . In its lower part with a molding that crowns to the ground in vertical wall as inclined slope . The outer cylinder is smooth to hinder their access . On the side facing the interior of the city , a series of open rooms , covered with ribbed vaults built ribbed . In the center of the towers above the arched doorway , arched hole appears to be attacked by those who wanted to break down the door . The arrangement of the towers over the old wall is slightly oblique , or diagonally , to accommodate Cuart street layout which was not perpendicular to the wall but diagonally. The style of the Torres de Quart, late Gothic , is repeated in several Italian cities like Genoa.

• published: 17 Sep 2013
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