In 1854, the city council abandoned the ruined first medieval town hall, located on the site now occupied by the garden of the Generalitat Palace, and moved to the old Casa de Enseñanza – an 18th century educational centre for poor girls. In 1906 it was decided to reform the Casa de la Enseñanza to build a true palace as a city hall. Carlos Carbonell Pañella and Francisco Mora Berenguer designed the façade in a monumental eclectic style. In the central body you’ll see the municipal coat of arms complete with the bat, supported by two female nudes in marble depicting the Arts and Letters, all works of the remarkable Valencian sculptor Mariano Benlliure. The building was completed in 1930, shortly before the Civil War. Being a Republican stronghold city during the war, if you look at the base of the facade, you may still see large shrapnel impact holes that remind us that it was attacked by Franco´s army!