Airport car hire in Valencia Spain
Airport car hire in Valencia, Spain can be pre-booked from the airport before you travel. You can also pick up a map of Valencia at the car hire office at the airport, to help you navigate your way around the region.
Things to do in Valencia Spain
Valencia is known the world over as the home of paella, possibly the most international of all Spanish dishes. But this city, an agricultural capital that is Spain's third largest population center, offers far more than seafood, sausage, and rice. The city has, as its local cheerleaders say, mucha marcha - lots of life. Like nowhere else in Spain, the residents of Valencia took to the Moors' love for flame and fireworks, still evidenced in the city's falles, riotous celebrations that draw tens of thousands of visitors every March. The cafes of the Ciutat Vella (Old City) abustle with people year-round, and the economy thrives.
But Valencia is a rose with thorns. The Ciutat Vella, set along an elbow of the Rio (River) Turia, is surrounded by a depressing sprawl of working-class housing blocks, and many travelers bypass it in favor of the better-known sites to the north and south. However, it's in the Ciutat Vella that you find the architecture, museums, and unusually rich historical heritage of what once was one of Spain's most powerful kingdoms. Valencia lies at the heart of the huerta (orchard), a crescent of alluvial plain made fertile by a complex irrigation system that has been in use for some 2,100 years.
History of Valencia
Water has transformed the area into an agricultural paradise: a flat, rich plain covered with millions of orange trees and numerous market gardens, flower nurseries, and nut tree orchards. Everything depends on the precious water of the Rio Turia, and the elected judges of Valencia's Water Tribunal have been meeting every Thursday since the Middle Ages outside the cathedral to settle disputes. The proceedings are open to the public and are held in Valencia (Valencian, a dialect of the Catalan language).
The Romans founded Valentia in 137 BC on the site of the previous Greek settlement of Thuris (Greeks, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians sailed the coast in this area and traded with the native Iberians long before the Romans arrived on the scene; the name Turia is still in evidence today, attached to the local river, streets, and some publications). The city eventually fell into the hands of the Visigoths and, in the 8th Century, the Moors (some of whom were Arabs but most of whom were North African Berber tribesmen), who invaded the peninsula from northern Africa.
El Cid and the Moors in Valencia
It was the Moors who gave the region many of its most trademark features - its orange groves, the palm trees that line its avenues, the glazing techniques that made its ceramics famous, tremendous improvements to the irrigation system still in use today, fireworks, silk, and rice, which is grown in paddies to the south. In the centuries following the Christian reconquest of Valencia, all Moorish landmarks were razed, leaving only a bathhouse that today is closed to the public. The first of the Catholic liberators was El Cid, the legendary hero from Burgos who took the town in 1094 and died here five years later. Following his death, his brave wife, Doña Jimena, was unable to maintain the Christian hold on the city, and it slipped back under Moorish control for another 150 years.
Valencians regard King Jaime (James) I of Aragon, known as the Conqueror, as their true liberator. Following a five month siege, the warrior king marched into the city in triumph one September day in 1238, granting its Christian inhabitants special rights, or costums, in return for their allegiance to the crown of Aragon. During the Middle Ages, the Black Death ravaged the city twice, and a violent pogrom in Valencia's old Jewish quarter set off popular attacks on Jews and converted Moors.
Vicent Ferrer, a brilliant but virulently bigoted Valencian cleric who was later saint d and made patron of his native city, delivered inflammatory anti-Semitic diatribes and helped frame discriminatory laws aimed at religious minorities. When the Holy Inquisition came to the city in 1482, at least 100 Valencians were burned at the stake for refusing to convert. This sad story of religious intolerance would be brought to a climax about 130 years later, with the expulsion from Spain of the last remaining 170,000 converted Moors in 1609
The Bourbons in Spain
The Bourbons (called los borbones in Spanish) came to rule Spain in the early 18th century via the War of the Spanish Succession, in which Valencia, along with Aragon and Catalonia, backed the defeated Habsburgs. The city paid for its mistake with the Nueva Planta decree of 1707, which stripped it of its ancient rights and generated resentment that still exists today. The kingdom became a province; its viceroy, a captain general sent from Madrid.
For better or for worse, Valencia has since been involved in just about every war and rebellion in Spain, winning a gritty reputation for independence and liberalmindedness. In 1808, led by one Father Rico, the populace stormed the city arsenal and rose bloodily against Napoleon's occupying troops; Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet managed to restore French rule only four years later. Over the following decades, Valencia was a hothouse of conspiracies, plots, and failed uprisings, notably the Republicaninspired insurrections of 1856 and 1864. A rebellion during the Revolution of 1868 was settled only with an artillery bombardment of the city.
True to its liberal past, Valencia fought on the losing side during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). For most of 1937, with Madrid under siege, Valencia became the Republican capital. It was shelled and bombed until it finally fell to Generalissimo Francisco Franco's Nationalist rebels. In the decades of repression that followed, the local language was almost stamped out; but after Franco died, it made a strong comeback and is now widely spoken. The city is now the capital of the comunidad valenciana, also known as Valencia, one of Spain's 17 comunidades autonomas (autonomous Communities). It comprises Valencia province along with Alicante (Alacant in valencian) and Castellon de la Plana.
The city today of Valencia has the feel of an overgrown agricultural capital, despite its heavy industry and sprawling development. Although past its age of glory, Valencia boasts one exceptional and famous 20th century writer: Vicente Blasco Ibanez (1867-1928), best known to English speakers for Sangre y Arena (Blood and Sand), possibly the finest novel ever written on bullfighting.
One of the great attractions of Valencia is precisely that it is not a major tourist attraction. With its many industries (furniture and ceramics foremost among them), and the grim industrial port of El Grao, it can be offputting to the casual passerby. But visitors soon find it to be a charming, a place with a good deal of local character. Valencians are less affecte than most residents of the Mediterranean coast by the onslaught of tounSln in recent decades, so most have a genuine desire to show the visitor why their city deserves a second look. Valencia At aGlance
Places to see in Valencia.
For those who don't mind a grueling, 207 step climb, a perfect view of the city can be had from Valencia's most popular monument, El Migueleze (in valencia, Micale!), the cathedral's 14th century octagonal belltower on the Plaga de la Reina. Clustered around the tower are all the principal buildings of the Ciutat Vella, and the visitor sees a vista of bridges over the Rio Turia bed, bluedomed churches, and the fertile huerta stretching beyond the ends of the city's streets.
Special places to visit in Valencia
Valencia's last set of city walls was torn down in 1865, but almost all af the city's main monuments and museums are within the relatively small area they once enclosed, now called the Ciutat Vella. The quarter is defined to the north by the bed of the Rio (River) Turia (which has been rerouted farther away from the city to solve the chronic flooding that had long plagued the Ciutat Vella), and on the west, south, and east by Avenida de Guhlem de Castro Calle de Xativa, and Calle Colon, respectively.
Keep in mind when planning visits that in Valencia, as in other Spanish cities, churches, museums, historic sites, and other places of touristic interest are usually open from 9:30 or 10 AM to 1 or 2 PM and then again from around 4 or 5 to 7 or 8 PM; schedules may change with the seasons. Some museums are open mornings only, and weekend hours are also often abbreviated. Closing days tend to be Sundays or Mondays. If possible, it's best to call for exact hours.
Valencia Cathedral
Angled oddly into a corner of the Plaza de la Reina, the main square of the Ciutat Vella, the cathedral (also known as La Seu) is a mixture of styles, as reflected in its three portals, which are Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque. Construction was begun in 1262 on the site of a mosque razed by the Catholic conquerors. Although the basic structure of the cathedral was completed towards the end of the 13th century, the main chapel and some side chapels were not completed until the 18th century.
Highlights include the tower, the Gothic dome, the chapter house, and the main altarpiece, which depicts the life of Christ on six panels. The main chapel contains the pulpit used by Vicent Ferrer to give some of his apocalyptic orations, and one of the leading Spanish candidates for the true Holy Graila muchrevered agate cup, set with emeralds and pearls on a base of pure gold. The church also boasts some fine paintings, including the Baptism of Christ by Juan de Juanes, but the real art treasures are housed in the Museo de La CatedraL, which contains works by Zurbaran, Juan de Juanes, and others. Notice also the Goya paintings in the museum.
The Basilica in Valencia
An arcade connects the cathedral to this eliptical building, which was completed in 1667 and is said to have been the first mental asylum in the world. The structure contains fine frescoes by Antonio Palomino on the interior of the dome, and a sculpted image of the Virgin of the Forsaken, the patroness of Valencia, that was supposedly sculpted by angels. On the Festa de La Verge (Feast Day of the Virgin), the second Sunday in May, and during the Festa de Corpus Christi, the Virgin is carried through nearby streets in processions marked by showers of rose petals and other flowers. Plaza de la Verge.
The Provincial Fine Arts Museum Valencia
Many people come to this first-rate art museum, one of Spain's best (but least-visited), just to see the small, brooding self-portrait painted by Velazquez in 1640. While this is its single unquestioned gem, the museum also houses an interesting collection of Valencian religious primitives of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.
These paintings are remarkable for their graphic, naive vigor: Blood gushes from Christ's sword wound into a goblet in one painting; the lactating Madonna spouts milk fro her swollen breasts ito he mouth of the infant Christ in another. Downstairs, there are early Iberian and Hispano-Roman artifacts. There is also a small treasure of works upstairs from Francisco Ribalta (who died in Valencia in 1628), Ribera, Murillo, El Greco (St. John the Baptist), Van Dyck, Hieronymus Bosch, and Goya, who once taught at the fine arts academy that runs the museum.
Nex door to the fine arts mseum, this small paradise of rose gardens, bouganvillea, palms, mimosas, jacarandas, cypress, and myrtle trees also has a diminutive but pleasant zoo. The gardens and the zoo are open daily.
The Silk Exchange Valencia
This structure in the heart of the Ciutat Vella is the finest example of Gothic architecture in a city renowned for the genre. In addition to an array of gargoyles, the facade features a series of fantastic and often even erotic small figures. The first room is the main Lonja de La Seda, a great vaulted hall supported by 24 twisting columns reminiscent of massive hanks of silk; on Fridays from 1 to 3 PM, fruit wholesalers hold auctions reminiscent of 16th-century silk fairs here. Next to this hall is the tower of La Lonja, said to have once served as a prison for bankrupt silk merchants. A remarkable circular stairway, with no central support, leads from a courtyard of orange trees to an upstairs hall noted for its elaborately gilded and carved wooden ceiling.
The Central Market Valencia
One of the finest and largest market buildings in Spain is made even more delightful by the colors and smells of the products of the huerta, along with the azulejos (glazed tiles) showng Valencian citrus fruits and vegetables. Built in 1928, the market is a fine example of Valencian modernism, and is visually similar to a turn-of-the-century railroad station, with glass skylights supported by an elaborate framework of iron girders. The market offers a quick taste of modern Valencian life.
The Natural Ceramics Museum Valencia
The amazing facade of this 18th-century rococo palace was designed by the painter Hypolito Rovira, who died in a Valencian mental aylum in 740. Its main entrance is a riotous alabaster fantasy of crocodIles, Cupids, a Virgin with Child, and two men spilling jugs of water the two waters of the Marques de Dos Aguas. The building now houses the Museo Nacional de Ceramica, Spain's leading ceramics museum. The gilded and tiled interior of the building, a kind of Hollywood version of a European palace, is a showcase of centuries of excellent pottery and azulejos from the outlying towns of Paterna, Alcora, and Manises, beautifully glazed work that was widely sought across Europe in the late Middle Ages.
In other rooms, there are works by Picasso, a Valencian tiled kitchen, and pottery from other regions of Spain and abroad.
The Bullfighting Museum Valencia
Almost hidden away in a covered concourse next to the bullring, one of Spain's leading taurine museums is filled with bullfighting memorabilia. The collection includes examples of 19th-century bullfighting garb; savage-looking lances, swords, and pics; the suits of lights worn by some leading toreros when they were gored; and the stuffed heads of some of the bulls. Valencia was for many centuries a leading city for bullfighting, though its reputation has fallen off in recent decades.
North Station Valencia
Many visitors, whether arriving by train or not, take the time to visit this charming railroad station, one of the most beautiful in Europe. Both the interior and exterior are decorated with azulejos bearing such Valencian motifs as oranges, the huerta, and barracas, the region's traditional thatch-roofed houses. The ticket counters and the cafeteria are especially delightful.
The Serranos Towers Valencia
The 14th-century gate next to the northern Puente Serranos (Serranos Bridge) was fully restored in 1930 and remains an imposing fortified arch. A second gate, another remnant of the medieval walls, is the 15th-century Torres de Quart, nearby on Avenida de Guillem de Castro. Like a proud old warrior, it still bears the scars of French cannonballs from the Peninsular War (1808-1814), waged by Napoleon against the British, the Portuguese, and the Spanish guerrillas.
The Institute of Modern Art Valencia
Hard by the remnants of the old city walls (in fact, a vestige of the medieval ramparts protrudes into one of the galleries) not far from the Torres de Quart, this is one of a recent crop of museums in Spain devoted exclusively to modern art. The collection is housed in two locations - an ultramodern stone and glass building called the Centre Julio Gonzalez and, in complete contrast, a nearby restored 13th to 16th century Carmelite convent called the Centre del Carme.
In addition to the permanent collection of some 1,400 pieces (paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Julio Gonzalez, a lifelong friend of Picasso, form the nucleus), the Centre Julio Gonzalez has an auditorium, a restaurant-bar, and a bookshop. It's also host to a year-round schedule of changing exhibitions and special cultural events.
The Music Palace Valencia
Across the Puente Aragon (Aragon Bridge) from the Ciutat Vella, Valencia's concert hall, built in the now dry bed of the Rio Turia in 1987, is a rather bizarre mix of reflecting pools, palm trees, small temple-like structures, and a main building that resembles an exceptionally swank greenhouse. It is known to locals as the micro ondas (microwave) because of its initial lack of air conditioning, and its designers also failed to 'include a system to clean its vast glass surfaces leading the city to hire mountaineers to do the job. Apart from performances, the building is open for group tours if arrangements are made in advance.
Places to visit near Valencia
The town of Manises was a major pottery center in the Middle Ages, when emissaries from the richest courts of Europe vied to buy its fine wares, characterized by distinctive blue and white patterns. While otherwise unattractive, the town today is packed with ceramics factories and retail shops, many of which sell good reproductions of pieces in Valencia's Museo Nacional de Ceramica at bargain prices. Manises is about 41 miles (7 km) west of Valencia, and is well served by city buses.
Sagunto near Valencia
In 219 BC, the Iberians, the first inhabitants of this fortified rocky ridge, set their possessions and themselves afire rather than surrender to the Carthaginian general Hannibal. The Romans eventually rebuilt the town, and it was successively held by the Visigoths, the Moors, and, in the 19th century, the French. Today, the archaeological site at Sagunto has an impressive 8,000seat amphitheater, as well as an ancient castle acropolis, and nearly half a mile of mostly Moorish medieval walls and ramparts.
An old Roman forum is marked by a huge broken stone marked with the letters FORV. The long ridge occupied by the fortifications provides a dramatic 360-degree view of orange groves, the surrounding mountains, and the Mediterranean.
Things to do in Valencia Spain
Valencia is known the world over as the home of paella, possibly the most international of all Spanish dishes. But this city, an agricultural capital that is Spain's third largest population center, offers far more than seafood, sausage, and rice. The city has, as its local cheerleaders say, mucha marcha - lots of life. Like nowhere else in Spain, the residents of Valencia took to the Moors' love for flame and fireworks, still evidenced in the city's falles, riotous celebrations that draw tens of thousands of visitors every March. The cafes of the Ciutat Vella (Old City) abustle with people year-round, and the economy thrives.
But Valencia is a rose with thorns. The Ciutat Vella, set along an elbow of the Rio (River) Turia, is surrounded by a depressing sprawl of working-class housing blocks, and many travelers bypass it in favor of the better-known sites to the north and south. However, it's in the Ciutat Vella that you find the architecture, museums, and unusually rich historical heritage of what once was one of Spain's most powerful kingdoms. Valencia lies at the heart of the huerta (orchard), a crescent of alluvial plain made fertile by a complex irrigation system that has been in use for some 2,100 years.
History of Valencia
Water has transformed the area into an agricultural paradise: a flat, rich plain covered with millions of orange trees and numerous market gardens, flower nurseries, and nut tree orchards. Everything depends on the precious water of the Rio Turia, and the elected judges of Valencia's Water Tribunal have been meeting every Thursday since the Middle Ages outside the cathedral to settle disputes. The proceedings are open to the public and are held in Valencia (Valencian, a dialect of the Catalan language).
The Romans founded Valentia in 137 BC on the site of the previous Greek settlement of Thuris (Greeks, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians sailed the coast in this area and traded with the native Iberians long before the Romans arrived on the scene; the name Turia is still in evidence today, attached to the local river, streets, and some publications). The city eventually fell into the hands of the Visigoths and, in the 8th Century, the Moors (some of whom were Arabs but most of whom were North African Berber tribesmen), who invaded the peninsula from northern Africa.
El Cid and the Moors in Valencia
It was the Moors who gave the region many of its most trademark features - its orange groves, the palm trees that line its avenues, the glazing techniques that made its ceramics famous, tremendous improvements to the irrigation system still in use today, fireworks, silk, and rice, which is grown in paddies to the south. In the centuries following the Christian reconquest of Valencia, all Moorish landmarks were razed, leaving only a bathhouse that today is closed to the public. The first of the Catholic liberators was El Cid, the legendary hero from Burgos who took the town in 1094 and died here five years later. Following his death, his brave wife, Doña Jimena, was unable to maintain the Christian hold on the city, and it slipped back under Moorish control for another 150 years.
Valencians regard King Jaime (James) I of Aragon, known as the Conqueror, as their true liberator. Following a five month siege, the warrior king marched into the city in triumph one September day in 1238, granting its Christian inhabitants special rights, or costums, in return for their allegiance to the crown of Aragon. During the Middle Ages, the Black Death ravaged the city twice, and a violent pogrom in Valencia's old Jewish quarter set off popular attacks on Jews and converted Moors.
Vicent Ferrer, a brilliant but virulently bigoted Valencian cleric who was later saint d and made patron of his native city, delivered inflammatory anti-Semitic diatribes and helped frame discriminatory laws aimed at religious minorities. When the Holy Inquisition came to the city in 1482, at least 100 Valencians were burned at the stake for refusing to convert. This sad story of religious intolerance would be brought to a climax about 130 years later, with the expulsion from Spain of the last remaining 170,000 converted Moors in 1609
The Bourbons in Spain
The Bourbons (called los borbones in Spanish) came to rule Spain in the early 18th century via the War of the Spanish Succession, in which Valencia, along with Aragon and Catalonia, backed the defeated Habsburgs. The city paid for its mistake with the Nueva Planta decree of 1707, which stripped it of its ancient rights and generated resentment that still exists today. The kingdom became a province; its viceroy, a captain general sent from Madrid.
For better or for worse, Valencia has since been involved in just about every war and rebellion in Spain, winning a gritty reputation for independence and liberalmindedness. In 1808, led by one Father Rico, the populace stormed the city arsenal and rose bloodily against Napoleon's occupying troops; Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet managed to restore French rule only four years later. Over the following decades, Valencia was a hothouse of conspiracies, plots, and failed uprisings, notably the Republicaninspired insurrections of 1856 and 1864. A rebellion during the Revolution of 1868 was settled only with an artillery bombardment of the city.
True to its liberal past, Valencia fought on the losing side during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). For most of 1937, with Madrid under siege, Valencia became the Republican capital. It was shelled and bombed until it finally fell to Generalissimo Francisco Franco's Nationalist rebels. In the decades of repression that followed, the local language was almost stamped out; but after Franco died, it made a strong comeback and is now widely spoken. The city is now the capital of the comunidad valenciana, also known as Valencia, one of Spain's 17 comunidades autonomas (autonomous Communities). It comprises Valencia province along with Alicante (Alacant in valencian) and Castellon de la Plana.
The city today of Valencia has the feel of an overgrown agricultural capital, despite its heavy industry and sprawling development. Although past its age of glory, Valencia boasts one exceptional and famous 20th century writer: Vicente Blasco Ibanez (1867-1928), best known to English speakers for Sangre y Arena (Blood and Sand), possibly the finest novel ever written on bullfighting.
One of the great attractions of Valencia is precisely that it is not a major tourist attraction. With its many industries (furniture and ceramics foremost among them), and the grim industrial port of El Grao, it can be offputting to the casual passerby. But visitors soon find it to be a charming, a place with a good deal of local character. Valencians are less affecte than most residents of the Mediterranean coast by the onslaught of tounSln in recent decades, so most have a genuine desire to show the visitor why their city deserves a second look. Valencia At aGlance
Places to see in Valencia.
For those who don't mind a grueling, 207 step climb, a perfect view of the city can be had from Valencia's most popular monument, El Migueleze (in valencia, Micale!), the cathedral's 14th century octagonal belltower on the Plaga de la Reina. Clustered around the tower are all the principal buildings of the Ciutat Vella, and the visitor sees a vista of bridges over the Rio Turia bed, bluedomed churches, and the fertile huerta stretching beyond the ends of the city's streets.
Special places to visit in Valencia
Valencia's last set of city walls was torn down in 1865, but almost all af the city's main monuments and museums are within the relatively small area they once enclosed, now called the Ciutat Vella. The quarter is defined to the north by the bed of the Rio (River) Turia (which has been rerouted farther away from the city to solve the chronic flooding that had long plagued the Ciutat Vella), and on the west, south, and east by Avenida de Guhlem de Castro Calle de Xativa, and Calle Colon, respectively.
Keep in mind when planning visits that in Valencia, as in other Spanish cities, churches, museums, historic sites, and other places of touristic interest are usually open from 9:30 or 10 AM to 1 or 2 PM and then again from around 4 or 5 to 7 or 8 PM; schedules may change with the seasons. Some museums are open mornings only, and weekend hours are also often abbreviated. Closing days tend to be Sundays or Mondays. If possible, it's best to call for exact hours.
Valencia Cathedral
Angled oddly into a corner of the Plaza de la Reina, the main square of the Ciutat Vella, the cathedral (also known as La Seu) is a mixture of styles, as reflected in its three portals, which are Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque. Construction was begun in 1262 on the site of a mosque razed by the Catholic conquerors. Although the basic structure of the cathedral was completed towards the end of the 13th century, the main chapel and some side chapels were not completed until the 18th century.
Highlights include the tower, the Gothic dome, the chapter house, and the main altarpiece, which depicts the life of Christ on six panels. The main chapel contains the pulpit used by Vicent Ferrer to give some of his apocalyptic orations, and one of the leading Spanish candidates for the true Holy Graila muchrevered agate cup, set with emeralds and pearls on a base of pure gold. The church also boasts some fine paintings, including the Baptism of Christ by Juan de Juanes, but the real art treasures are housed in the Museo de La CatedraL, which contains works by Zurbaran, Juan de Juanes, and others. Notice also the Goya paintings in the museum.
The Basilica in Valencia
An arcade connects the cathedral to this eliptical building, which was completed in 1667 and is said to have been the first mental asylum in the world. The structure contains fine frescoes by Antonio Palomino on the interior of the dome, and a sculpted image of the Virgin of the Forsaken, the patroness of Valencia, that was supposedly sculpted by angels. On the Festa de La Verge (Feast Day of the Virgin), the second Sunday in May, and during the Festa de Corpus Christi, the Virgin is carried through nearby streets in processions marked by showers of rose petals and other flowers. Plaza de la Verge.
The Provincial Fine Arts Museum Valencia
Many people come to this first-rate art museum, one of Spain's best (but least-visited), just to see the small, brooding self-portrait painted by Velazquez in 1640. While this is its single unquestioned gem, the museum also houses an interesting collection of Valencian religious primitives of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.
These paintings are remarkable for their graphic, naive vigor: Blood gushes from Christ's sword wound into a goblet in one painting; the lactating Madonna spouts milk fro her swollen breasts ito he mouth of the infant Christ in another. Downstairs, there are early Iberian and Hispano-Roman artifacts. There is also a small treasure of works upstairs from Francisco Ribalta (who died in Valencia in 1628), Ribera, Murillo, El Greco (St. John the Baptist), Van Dyck, Hieronymus Bosch, and Goya, who once taught at the fine arts academy that runs the museum.
Nex door to the fine arts mseum, this small paradise of rose gardens, bouganvillea, palms, mimosas, jacarandas, cypress, and myrtle trees also has a diminutive but pleasant zoo. The gardens and the zoo are open daily.
The Silk Exchange Valencia
This structure in the heart of the Ciutat Vella is the finest example of Gothic architecture in a city renowned for the genre. In addition to an array of gargoyles, the facade features a series of fantastic and often even erotic small figures. The first room is the main Lonja de La Seda, a great vaulted hall supported by 24 twisting columns reminiscent of massive hanks of silk; on Fridays from 1 to 3 PM, fruit wholesalers hold auctions reminiscent of 16th-century silk fairs here. Next to this hall is the tower of La Lonja, said to have once served as a prison for bankrupt silk merchants. A remarkable circular stairway, with no central support, leads from a courtyard of orange trees to an upstairs hall noted for its elaborately gilded and carved wooden ceiling.
The Central Market Valencia
One of the finest and largest market buildings in Spain is made even more delightful by the colors and smells of the products of the huerta, along with the azulejos (glazed tiles) showng Valencian citrus fruits and vegetables. Built in 1928, the market is a fine example of Valencian modernism, and is visually similar to a turn-of-the-century railroad station, with glass skylights supported by an elaborate framework of iron girders. The market offers a quick taste of modern Valencian life.
The Natural Ceramics Museum Valencia
The amazing facade of this 18th-century rococo palace was designed by the painter Hypolito Rovira, who died in a Valencian mental aylum in 740. Its main entrance is a riotous alabaster fantasy of crocodIles, Cupids, a Virgin with Child, and two men spilling jugs of water the two waters of the Marques de Dos Aguas. The building now houses the Museo Nacional de Ceramica, Spain's leading ceramics museum. The gilded and tiled interior of the building, a kind of Hollywood version of a European palace, is a showcase of centuries of excellent pottery and azulejos from the outlying towns of Paterna, Alcora, and Manises, beautifully glazed work that was widely sought across Europe in the late Middle Ages.
In other rooms, there are works by Picasso, a Valencian tiled kitchen, and pottery from other regions of Spain and abroad.
The Bullfighting Museum Valencia
Almost hidden away in a covered concourse next to the bullring, one of Spain's leading taurine museums is filled with bullfighting memorabilia. The collection includes examples of 19th-century bullfighting garb; savage-looking lances, swords, and pics; the suits of lights worn by some leading toreros when they were gored; and the stuffed heads of some of the bulls. Valencia was for many centuries a leading city for bullfighting, though its reputation has fallen off in recent decades.
North Station Valencia
Many visitors, whether arriving by train or not, take the time to visit this charming railroad station, one of the most beautiful in Europe. Both the interior and exterior are decorated with azulejos bearing such Valencian motifs as oranges, the huerta, and barracas, the region's traditional thatch-roofed houses. The ticket counters and the cafeteria are especially delightful.
The Serranos Towers Valencia
The 14th-century gate next to the northern Puente Serranos (Serranos Bridge) was fully restored in 1930 and remains an imposing fortified arch. A second gate, another remnant of the medieval walls, is the 15th-century Torres de Quart, nearby on Avenida de Guillem de Castro. Like a proud old warrior, it still bears the scars of French cannonballs from the Peninsular War (1808-1814), waged by Napoleon against the British, the Portuguese, and the Spanish guerrillas.
The Institute of Modern Art Valencia
Hard by the remnants of the old city walls (in fact, a vestige of the medieval ramparts protrudes into one of the galleries) not far from the Torres de Quart, this is one of a recent crop of museums in Spain devoted exclusively to modern art. The collection is housed in two locations - an ultramodern stone and glass building called the Centre Julio Gonzalez and, in complete contrast, a nearby restored 13th to 16th century Carmelite convent called the Centre del Carme.
In addition to the permanent collection of some 1,400 pieces (paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Julio Gonzalez, a lifelong friend of Picasso, form the nucleus), the Centre Julio Gonzalez has an auditorium, a restaurant-bar, and a bookshop. It's also host to a year-round schedule of changing exhibitions and special cultural events.
The Music Palace Valencia
Across the Puente Aragon (Aragon Bridge) from the Ciutat Vella, Valencia's concert hall, built in the now dry bed of the Rio Turia in 1987, is a rather bizarre mix of reflecting pools, palm trees, small temple-like structures, and a main building that resembles an exceptionally swank greenhouse. It is known to locals as the micro ondas (microwave) because of its initial lack of air conditioning, and its designers also failed to 'include a system to clean its vast glass surfaces leading the city to hire mountaineers to do the job. Apart from performances, the building is open for group tours if arrangements are made in advance.
Places to visit near Valencia
The town of Manises was a major pottery center in the Middle Ages, when emissaries from the richest courts of Europe vied to buy its fine wares, characterized by distinctive blue and white patterns. While otherwise unattractive, the town today is packed with ceramics factories and retail shops, many of which sell good reproductions of pieces in Valencia's Museo Nacional de Ceramica at bargain prices. Manises is about 41 miles (7 km) west of Valencia, and is well served by city buses.
Sagunto near Valencia
In 219 BC, the Iberians, the first inhabitants of this fortified rocky ridge, set their possessions and themselves afire rather than surrender to the Carthaginian general Hannibal. The Romans eventually rebuilt the town, and it was successively held by the Visigoths, the Moors, and, in the 19th century, the French. Today, the archaeological site at Sagunto has an impressive 8,000seat amphitheater, as well as an ancient castle acropolis, and nearly half a mile of mostly Moorish medieval walls and ramparts.
An old Roman forum is marked by a huge broken stone marked with the letters FORV. The long ridge occupied by the fortifications provides a dramatic 360-degree view of orange groves, the surrounding mountains, and the Mediterranean.
posted by Fay at
5:58 AM
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