Valencia Cathedral: Ancient ventilation system is key to discreet ASD protection.

The 700-year-old Cathedral of Valencia is a cultural jewel that reflects the history of the city in its stones. Protecting such a priceless building from fire is important, but so is preserving its stunning interior aesthetics. Securiton’s highly capable SecuriSmoke ASD Heavy Duty systems are able to do both, by working alongside the natural ventilation designed by the cathedral’s medieval architects.

Modern fire safety meets ancient architecture

Built between the 13th and 15th centuries, the cathedral offers a unique Valencian Gothic architecture, having been initially constructed in a hurry to mark the city’s reconquest by the Christians. Built on the site of an earlier Visigothic cathedral that the city’s Moorish inhabitants had turned into a mosque, it was consecrated in 1238 by the first bishop of Valencia, and the initial building phase was completed by 1350 – fast by medieval standards!Further buildings were added in the following century, including the famous Miguelete Tower, and in 1459 the ar-chitects Francesc Baldomar and Pere Compte expanded the nave and tran-septs in a further section which brought everything together in one sprawling and majestic building. Ornamentation in the cathedral’s magnificent vaulted interior developed in later centuries and includes a painting by Goya.

Damaged once by fire in the Spanish Civil War, the challenges of discretely protecting such a complex building from further damage are considerable. Using Performance-based Design, Securiton International’s Spanish technical team devised a system that involved sampling air exiting the cathedral’s ancient roof vents, using capillaries from sampling tubes mounted on the exterior façade and roof.
In order to achieve this, and have a system that still offers longevity, reliability and straightforward maintenance, four ASD 535-4HDs and one 535-3HD were used, connected via FidesNet for easy monitoring on-site. Following Performance-based Design principles, the system was tested using smoke and has been approved by local fire authorities.