Collegiate Basilica of Gandia

This church baptised the one Borgia who broke the family’s notorious reputation. The Borgias produced two popes shadowed by accusations of corruption and murder — and here, beneath a floor that still shows the remains of the mosque it was built over, their own great-grandson was christened, later renounced a dukedom, and eventually became a canonised Catholic saint.

Built over a mosque, on the Borgias’ own doorstep

Construction began under Alfons el Vell in the 14th century, on ground that had previously held a Muslim mosque — remnants of its walls are still visible today through a glass viewing panel set into the floor beside the high altar, a rare, literal window into the building’s layered past. In 1499, Pope Alexander VI — born Rodrigo de Borgia, and by then one of the most notorious popes in Church history — personally elevated the church to collegiate status, cementing its role as the Borgia family’s own parish church in the city they had ruled as dukes.

The Borgia who became a saint

The Borgias’ reputation across the 15th and 16th centuries was built on real scandal: two family members reached the papacy, Alfons de Borja as Callixtus III and Rodrigo de Borgia as Alexander VI, and both were dogged by accusations of corruption and worse. Against that backdrop, one descendant stands out entirely. Francis Borgia, great-grandson of Alexander VI, was baptised in this church in 1510 and became Duke of Gandía at 33 — only to renounce the title after his wife’s death and join the Society of Jesus. He rose to become the order’s fourth Superior General, founded Gandía’s own university (the world’s first Jesuit university, in 1543), and was canonised in 1670. His baptismal font still stands inside the church, a physical link to the one Borgia the family’s dark reputation never touched.

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