Valencia (Valencia)

What you can do and see in Valencia

The city of Valencia, bathed by the Mediterranean, surprises everyone who visits it for the first time. So, if you’ve never been, we recommend that you plan your stay for at least two or three days.

One of the great merits of the city has been the way it has balanced tradition and modernity. Valencia possesses an attractive historical centre, dotted with modernist buildings, fully integrated in a modern city with multiple services, with enviable commerce and gastronomy, and numerous options for leisure and culture, from its urban beaches to the City of Arts and Sciences.

The medieval city is framed by the old course of the River Turia and the streets of Guillem de Castro, Xàtiva and Colón. You can enter it across any of the bridges over the old course of the river, which is now a gardened promenade. The oldest is Trinity Bridge while Serranos Bridge is also important and gives its name to one of the two surviving historical gates that were the entrances to the walled city. Both are in a Gothic style and are guarded by towers from which they receive their name: Serranos Tower and Quart Towers.

Although the city walls were demolished in the 19th century, on your walk you can find some sections of the old Islamic wall as well as some towers and the Gate of Valldigna, which in the 15th century connected the Christian and Muslim districts. It is well worth visiting the Arab Baths of the Admiral, in a Mudejar style. Although they were built by Christians in the early 14th century, they followed the style of these typically Islamic buildings. They have been reformed considerably but they still give an idea of the purpose and design of these constructions, which were a place for meetings and leisure in Islamic society.

We do not know where El Cid entered the city, but he is believed to have lived and died in Valencia in the Palace of al-Qadir, near Trinity Bridge. This is the route you can take, along Salvador Street, to reach an interesting archaeological museum where you can see archaeological remains ‘trapped’ underground and Roman, Visigothic and Islamic artefacts. The Visigothic crypt of the San Vicente Gaol is next to it and its visit is equally recommended. The Palau Door of Valencia Cathedral is opposite it. The representatives of the Waters Tribunal meet nearby in Mare de Deu Square at 12 o’clock on Thursdays.

Valencia Cathedral was built over the main mosque and was consecrated as a cathedral by El Cid in 1096. Micalet or Miguelete bell-tower, one of the symbols of the city, displays with its late Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles the continual transformation of Valencia. From the top, because it can be visited, you can see breath-taking views of the city. The cathedral guards numerous artistic treasures and other symbolic or spiritual objects. One of these is known as the Holy Grail, the cup that Christ drank from at the Last Supper.

If you continue along San Vicente Martyr Street, after a long walk you can reach the junction with the Gran Vía de Ramón y Cajal, where the Plaza de España displays the equestrian statue of El Cid, the work of Anna Hyatt Huntington, which is closely tied by invisible but very solid links to the statue of the same name in Burgos. As a curiosity, the nearby old monastery of San Vicente de la Roqueta was the only Mozarabic church that survived in the Muslim city until the conquest by El Cid.

You should not miss

• World Heritage you can see in Valencia. The Silk Exchange is one of the most fascinating examples of Gothic civil architecture. The Tribunal of the Waters meets on Fridays opposite the Door of the Apostles in the cathedral. It is an institution with an Islamic origin that has continued until the present time. The Valencia Fallas are much more than a spectacular festival, unique in the world; they are a popular expression whose roots are sunk in the heart of folklore and the way of life of the inhabitants of Valencia.
• Gothic Valencia. The city is famous for its Gothic heritage, the result of the city’s prosperity in the 15th and 16th centuries, when Mediterranean trade was still booming compared with the Atlantic trade that was still beginning after the discovery of America. The Exchange, the Cathedral, the Quart Towers, the churches of Santa Catalina, Santos Juanes, San Martín Obispo and San Antonio Abad, Santo Domingo, and San Juan, the Convent of the Carmen and the Monastery of the Trinity, the bridge of the same name, and civil buildings like Atarazanas, Palau de la Generalitat, the Palace of the Admirals of Aragon and the Escrivá or Almudín Palace are some good examples. If you are interested in the Gothic art of Valencia, the Tourism Office can inform you about the possible city tours you can take.
• The coast of the Community of Valencia is one of the main tourist destinations for the enjoyment of sun and beach in Spain. The city of Valencia has some excellent beaches, some of them with legendary names, like Malvarrosa Beach, and many other quite varied ones: Garrofera, Pinedo, El Saler, Devesa, Recatí-Perellonet and El Cabanyal - Las Arenas, where the Disembarkation or Gesture of El Cid takes place every year.
• La Albufera is a freshwater lagoon around which a fascinating ecological and economic system has developed that is unique in Spain. Valencia cannot be understood without La Albufera and the Valencian Orchards. An interpretation centre on the lagoon will help you to understand this first class natural, social and economic phenomenon.

Rev.: JGG 23.09.21