Overview

• València City Council has launched expropriation proceedings under the Ley de Expropiación Forzosa for four covetes whose owners declined to join the restoration project
• The covetes are 19 barrel-vaulted commercial units built in 1700 beneath the Santos Juanes church that have stood vacant since the late 1980s and are part of a Bien de Interés Cultural site
• A restoration plan approved by the Dirección General de Patrimonio Cultural in 2022 aligns with the Plan Especial de Protección de Ciutat Vella
• Most property owners represented by the Asociación Recuperem Les Covetes de Sant Joan are collaborating with the council to rehabilitate the stalls as a marketplace for artisanal and cultural products
• The expropriation follows an April declaration of social interest by the local government and will allow the council to assume ownership and oversee restoration of the holdout units