The José Luis March house-workshop in the Carmen district in the historic centre of Valencia, is located in the setting of the 11th century Arab wall.
In this workshop, where several generations of the March family have worked, the premises of a silk factory with a family tradition still remain. This environment originated in the first artisan settlements of the Muslim era motivated by the hydraulic use of the waters of the canal that ran next to the workshop.
It is the only workshop in the city that has maintained in its essence all the characteristics of a family and guild traditional craft workshop, making it an ideal place to illustrate and document a long period of history and popular culture that precedes the social and economic changes caused by industrialisation. Goldsmithing, carving, enamelwork... they worked in these areas, leaving an important ethnological legacy.
The house-workshop has a lot of machinery, utensils, instruments and tools. In addition, the female branch of the March family specialised in silk brocade, embroidered with silver and gold thread of Byzantine tradition required by the ecclesiastical curia in this era.
In the workshop, a small Jacquard loom and various utensils of this art are preserved as displays of traces and the machinery necessary to work the metals of the embroideries and fabrics (brocades and tissues), as well as samples of fabrics conserved by the family that documents the way in which the silk fabric was made.
Among all the activities that have been carried out in the workshop for years are temporary exhibitions of jewellery, enamels, ceramics, etc. Ceramic courses for children are also held.
Moreover, they collaborate with the Higher School of Art and Design of Valencia, Intramurs and Ciutat Vella Oberta and also with the Master’s in Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Faculty of Geography and History in the advice for research work on topics related to applied arts, artistic trades and guilds in Valencia.