The city of Valencia

Valencia Travel Guide

A falla in Plaza del Ayuntamiento

The province of Valencia is the largest of the three which go to make up the Valencian community. It is situated in the centre of the spanish Mediterranean coastline. It overlooks the spacious Gulf of Valencia and is skirted at the back by a group of medium-high mountains and rolling plains leading to the lands of Aragon and Castile-La Mancha. It is opposite the Balearic islands and equidistant from the country's two major decision-taking centres: Madrid and Barcelona. Valencia is identified with the Mediterranean Sea because the culture deriving from the old Mare Nostrum is manifest in its patterns of social behaviour.

It is the administrative capital of the Valencian community and the centre of the reagion of L'Horta. It is the most densely populated town in the Valencian community as it is encircled by a wide belt of medium-sezed municipal districts which form an unbroken built-up area with an average density of 1,600 inhabitants per square kilometre. Sightseeing around the city begins in the old quarter. Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was defended by a wall, the inner route of the number five bus. Still standing as proof are the graceful Torres de Serranos, the spacious Torres de Quart and some remains of the apron wall in the basement of the Valencia institute of Modern Arts. The most outstanding artistic heritage is to be found in the districts of Seu and Xerea, where the marks left by thr Romans lie hidden beneath Arab ruins and modern churches and palaces.

Plaza de la Virgen

Palau de la Música (Music palace)

The Mercat district took shape around the commercial life of the city's inhabitants. Accordingly, its two most emblematic buildings are used for trading purposes. The Gothic building of La Lonja, declared by UNESCO as a heritage of humanity, features a beautiful columned room where the old tables on which trading transactions were finalised are still in use today. Outside the destroyed wall grew the Valencia of the bourgeoisie, with its wide pavements, broad landscaped thoroughfares and countless instances of modernist architecture. On the other side of the Turia's old riverbed lie the nursery gardens, along with the Fine Arts Museum and the ultramodern part of the city which, on account of its size, serves as a nexus between the coastal townships and the old quarter. The futuristic face of the city is mirrored on the old riverbed through the Gulliver Children's park and the leisure and culture complex., Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciencies. Life in the city spreads down to the seafront with the harbour are and the beaches of Las Arenas and La Malvarrosa.

Fiestas and celebrations in Valencia

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The calendar of popular fiestas is rich and varied in Valencia. Each part of the year has its own celebration and recollection of tradition. The bonfires of San Antonio Abad come fisrt on the calendar, with burning pyres of firewood and the blessing of animals. Of particular note is the one held in Canals. On March 19th, the Fallas dedicated to St. Joseph take over the streets of the capital and of over 60 other towns in the province. On the appointed day, huge catafalques bearing cardboard figures are erected, to be burnt four days later amid a blaze of fireworks. These are the fiestas which attract the largest number of spectators and arouse most interest among visitors, drawn by the colourfulness of the Passacaglia, the offering to the Virgen of the helpless and the fireworks display. The Corpus Christi, Fiesta of Moors and Christians and of course, the famous Tomato fiesta "La Tomatina", are other fiestas of Valencia.

OTHER FIESTAS No nation on earth is quite as good at enjoying itself as Spain. There are so many fiestas that even if you could attend more than one a day you would not be able to see them all.