Starting from the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, there are various routes to explore the city. We could strike out down Avenida María Cristina to the Mercado Central, modernist in style and perfectly illuminated by enormous windows and skylights. Opposite the market is the Lonja de la Seda, the Silk Exchange, a masterwork of European civil Gothic. In front is the Gothic-style Iglesia de los Santos Juanes, built in the mid fourteenth century. Further on, where two important medieval streets run into each other (Calle de Quart and Calle Cavallers), we find the Iglesia de San Nicolás. Nearby is the Plaza de la Virgen, containing the Palacio de la Generalitat, one of the City’s most representative Gothic buildings. It is currently the head office of the regional government of Valencia. From this point we should note the set of buildings made up by the Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados and the cathedral. To the left, along a pedestrian-only street is the seventeenth-century Iglesia de San Lorenzo and the Palau dels Borja, current parliament of the Valencia region. We are now close to the River Turia, where we should take time out to see the Gothic bridges and the Torres de Serranos, one of the old entrances into the walled city of Valencia.

Taking the Calle Roteros we come to the Plaza del Carmen, where the church of the same name stands. Backtracking towards the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, we take the Calle de San Vicente Mártir to reach the Iglesia de San Martín, Gothic outside and Baroque inside. At the end of this street comes the Plaza de la Reina, one of the city’s finest squares. To the left stands the Baroque Torre de Santa Catalina.

From here we should also take in one of the city’s symbols, the Torre del Micalet, the tower-belfry of the cathedral, which has a Gothic structure. Along the Calle del Almirante we come to the Almudín with the Gothic Palacio de los Escrivá standing alongside. Of great interest also is the Palacio del Almirante, which contains some Arab baths.

On the corner of Calle Nave stands the Literary University of Valencia and, opposite it, a masterwork of Spanish Renaissance architecture, the Real Colegio del Corpus Christi. At the meeting point of the streets Colón, Russafa and Xàtiva are two buildings of great importance: on one side the Plaza de Toros (bullring) and on the other the Estación del Norte, a Modernist style station. In Calle de las Barcas the Teatro Principal stands side by side with the Iglesia de San Juan de la Cruz, an eighteenth-century Baroque style church. Crossing the Calle del Mar we can visit the Casa de san Vicente Ferrer, famous for a well from which, as legend has it, curative water was drawn. As well as all the above, Valencia has many museums that are well worth a visit, such as the Museo Histórico, the Museo Paleontológico, the IVAM, the Museo de Prehistoria, the Museo de Bellas Artes, the Museo de la Ciencia and the Museo Oceanográfico.

© Alhena Media