Francisco Almenar

Francisco Almenar Quinzá (27 July 1876 – 7 March 1936) was a Spanish architect and sports leader who served as the 11th president of football club Valencia CF between 1933 and 1936.

Early life and education
Francisco Almenar was born on 27 July 1876 in Valencia, as the son of Bernardo Almenar Llácer and Rosario Quinzá Birgón. He married one of the daughters of the architect Antonio Martorell Trilles.

Almenar completed his high school studies in Valencia, going to live in Barcelona in 1893 where he studied architecture at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, graduating on 27 April 1904.

Architect career
Almenar was an architect at the service of the State who designed some important works in the city of Valencia. For instance, for the Valencia Regional Exhibition in 1909, he designed the Pavilion for Agriculture and Industry and the Automobile Pavilion, the Circus Theater, and the Great Entrance Arch, all demolished and with an eclectic line.

Almenar is also the author of two performance halls that have not survived to this day, the Teatro Martí in 1915 located on the current Paseo de Ruzafa (formerly Pi y Margall) and the Gran Teatro (later Rex cinema) from 1923, located on Marqués de Sotelo Avenue no. 6 and which was demolished in 2003. In 1923, he was also in charge of the construction works of the Mestalla Stadium, the field where Valencia CF played. He directed the works of the Dominican Church on Cirilo Amorós Street in Valencia, executing the project of Joaquín María Arnau Miramón, who died before the church was built. He intervened with Francisco Javier Goerlich in the Banco de Valencia building and with José Cort Botí in the Casa de la Caridad.

His work is also the building he built on Játiva Street for the Hotel Metropol. He designed several garages in the city, and various residential buildings, such as the Casa Ernesto Ferrer, in the town hall square.

On 29 December 1906, Almenar was later appointed academic of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia.

Presidency of Valencia CF
A lifelong fan of football and his team, he was elected president of Valencia CF on 3 November 1935, but a few months later he died from a heart attack, so his time as president of the football club was short-lived. At the time of his death, Francisco Almenar was dean of the College of Architects of Valencia and Knight of the Order of Charles III.

Death
Almenar died in Valencia on 7 March 1936, at the age of 59. An architect by profession, he has a street in the city labeled with his name: Arquitecto Almenar.