The flowers that thousands of falleros and falleras laid at the feet of the Mare de Déu dels Desamparats during this year’s Fallas Offering will not end up in a dumpster.
The Valencia City Council’s Cleaning and Waste Collection Service has, once again this year, removed the nearly 14,000 kilos of flowers that made up the Virgin’s mantle and will give them a second life: they will be turned into compost for the city’s gardens.
An example of the circular economy that symbolically closes the cycle of one of the most powerful images of the Fallas: the very flowers that created one of the most photographed scenes of the week now return to the earth to nourish Valencia’s green spaces.
In 2026, Valencian illustrator and graphic designer Xenia Magraner designed the mantle as a single piece representing, in the artist’s own words, “the suffering and resilience of the people in the face of war and violence, ” depicted through two silhouettes—a woman and a child—holding hands against a red and yellow background.