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Valencia 10 Sights & Activities

1. Cathedral and El Micalet

This vast cathedral is one of Valencia’s most imposing landmarks. It dominates Plaça de la Reina, a long, elegant square surrounded by terrace cafés and palm trees. The cathedral was built to proclaim the conquest of the city by the Christian armies of Jaume 1. A mosque on the same site was destroyed to make way for it. Begun in the late 13th century and completed at the end of the 15th century, it is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a mixture of various architectural styles. Its intricately sculpted baroque façade was added in the 1700s.

In contrast to this, the interior features a surprisingly light and elegant Gothic design, with alabaster windows and a 14th century cupola. However, there is also a broodingly gloomy, heavily perfumed chapel – the Capilla del Santo Cáliz – which contains the cathedral’s most celebrated artefact: a jewel encrusted chalice carved from agate that is reputed to be the Holy Grail. If you wish, you can drop one Euro into a slot and the altarpiece will light up for full ecclesiastical effect!

The cathedral’s other great feature is the 60 metre high Micalet, a delightful, Gothic octagonal belltower which has become Valencia’s much loved symbol. To reach the top you have to climb 270 steps. You might be staggering when you get to the top, but then so is the view across the cupolas, baroque towers and higgledy-piggledy maze of the Old City.

2. The Llotja (Silk Exchange)

Built in the late 15th century, this commodity exchange is the most beautiful building in Valencia and one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in Europe (declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1996.) The vaulted ceiling of the main hall – the Sala de Contratación – reaches almost 18 metres at its highest point. A sermon is etched on the main entrance of the Llotja: the Puerta de los Pescados (Gate of Sins.) However, some of the etchings that surround it slyly compromise its pious effect, depicting Adam and Eve caught in flagrante delicto and creatures performing all sorts of other transgressions.

If you’d like a taste of the buzz that must have animated the Llotja 500 years ago, when the Sala de Contratación echoed with the competing bids of merchants, visit the popular stamp and coin market that is still held there on a Sunday morning.

3. La Ciutat de les Artes i les Ciènces

This sprawling, futuristic arts and science complex on the southern edge of the city is Valencia’s newest jewel. Designed by local celebrity architect Santiago Calatrava, it was commissioned in order to raise the city’s profile, after Valencia saw how the Guggenheim Museum renewed the fortunes of Bilbao. Some might argue that it’s a lot more fun.

The most enticing sections are the Museu de les Ciències, L’Hemisferic and L’Oceanogràfic. The first is a brilliantly inventive science museum, crammed with ingenious hands-on exhibits, which explain everything from how the body works to what electricity is. Though they are designed principally for children, they provide high levels of entertainment and information for adult visitors too. Meanwhile, in the Exploratorio, you can play with sounds, patterns and light, and in the Teatri Virtual you can try out some virtual reality surfing or volleyball.

L’Hemisferic, next door to the Museum, is a striking, spherical building, which contains a planetarium, an IMAX cinema and a laserium (with headhphones that allow you to hear commentaries in English.) Meanwhile, the most recently opened part of the complex is L’Oceanogràfic. Housed in 11 beautifully sculpted buildings scattered around a vast lake, it is Europe’s largest aquarium. The different subterranean aquariums recreate the world’s most important marine ecosystems – including the Mediterranean, Caribbean, South Pacific and coral reefs. Overall, the aquarium is home to 45000 fish and marine mammals representing 500 species. Vast glass tunnels link the different sections, making visitors feel as if they are walking underwater from one to the next. There’s also a large dolphinarium with a school of 20 bottlenose dolphins, who regularly perform shows.

4. Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM)

Valencia’s excellent museum of modern art is housed in a vast, uncompromisingly modern building, which has just had a huge extension added to it. The centrepiece of the permanent collection, which rotates regularly, is an extensive array of sculpture by Julio Gonzalez, the Catalan artist who collaborated with Picasso in the 1930s.

The IVAM also has the most important public collection of the works of the Valencian painter Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench. It comprises a hundred paintings and over six hundred drawings. There have also been numerous recent additions of work by artists such as Jacques Lipchitz, Eduardo Chillida, Tony Smith, Esteban Vicente, Georg Baselitz, Lucebert, Manolo Valdés and Markus Lüpertz.

5. Torres de Serrans

The Old City of Valencia was contained behind defensive walls until 1865. They were then demolished and replaced with broad, modern boulevards and widened, remodelled squares. But these two sturdy, crenellated towers, guarding a narrow gateway, are the most substantial and eye catching survivors of the medieval walls. They were built between 1392 and 1398 and for three centuries they were used as a prison for knights and nobility. Climb them and you can see across the Old City and the former Riu Túria. The view is almost as spectacular as that from the top of the Micalet, but it won't leave you gasping for breath.

6. Jardi Botanic

The oldest Botanical Gardens established in Spain, the Jardi Botanic are an oasis of peace and fertility on the fringes of the bustling Old City. The modern entrance hall is dominated by a huge tree, which grows through a circular hole in the roof. Beyond this lie the gardens proper, with shaded pathways winding elegantly between them. They contain more than 4500 species, laid out in elegant parterres and connected by shady, tranquil paths.

7. Jardins de Turia

From Roman times on, citizens had to contend with frequent flooding by the River Turia, which ran right through their city. After an especially bad flood in 1957, they decided to abandon attempts to contain its waters and instead diverted the river to the south.

In the 1990 the empty riverbed was ingeniously converted into a long, grassy park, which winds for several kilometres between the Old and New Cities and culminates in the fabulous Ciutat de les Artes I les Ciènces. As well as being a popular spot for joggers – or for those just seeking a peaceful stroll – it contains tennis courts and cycling paths. It’s also ideal for kids, since Gulliver Park features an enormous sprawling figure which they can have lots of fun crawling over. While they do so, there are a couple of cafes for adults to have a break at.

8. Mercat Central

Built in the Modernista style, with lots of wrought iron and stained glass, Valencia’s central market is one of the most beautiful in all of Spain. Look around the colourful range of fresh produce on display at more than 1000 stalls, and you’ll see why Valencia is called Spain’s orchard.

The windows bear the red and yellow striped insignia of the Vatican kingdom and there’s a huge cupola, encrusted with elaborate mosaics. The semi-enclosed hall that contains the fish market is perhaps the eye-catching area of the market. Again, there is an amazing array of produce on display and another cupola, this one playfully adorned with ceramic fish. When gazing up at the roof from outside, you’ll also spot the market’s many delicate, wrought-iron weathervanes. The most famous is the green parrot. It is called la cotorra del mercat. Strictly speaking, this means the market’s parrot. But cotorra also translates as “chatter box” – a sly jibe directed at the gossipy stallholders.

9. Las Fallas

Among Spain many, justly celebrated fiestas, Valencia’s “Las Fallas” is one of the most spectacular and important. Those originally involved, back in the Middle Ages, were carpenters, who used to light a bonfire in honour of Saint Joseph, their patron saint. Effigies depicting rival organisations of carpenters were then thrown onto the fire. These days the effigies are much larger and made of papier-mâché, wood and wax. They can take a year to built and are paraded through the streets from 13 – 19 March. They usually take a topical and satirical form, with each neighbourhood (or barrio) vying to create the best.

The opening of the festival is usually announced from the Torres de Serrans by the Fallera Mayor – the Queen of the Fallas. Each day, during the subsequent week, firecrackers blast out over Placa de l’Ajuntament, bullfights are held in the afternoons and the evenings culminate with a massive fireworks display. All the fallas are assembled in the streets on 15th March. The fiesta culminates with a bang on 19th March – the night of the feast of St Joseph – when the Fallas are thrown into an enormous pyre, the Crema. Prize-winning fallas are kept till last. Only one "ninot" (the mini version of a fallas) is saved each year by popular vote and exhibited in the Museum of the Ninot, together with those from previous years which won the same privilege.

10. Platja de Malvarrosa

This is a long, sandy beach, which stretches north of the port for several miles. Valencianos refer to the whole stretch as Platja de Malvarrosa, but it is actually divided into different sections, each with a name of its own.

The section nearest the port is called the Platja de Levante or Platja Las Arenas. Here you’ll find a string of restaurants, hotels and bars squeezed next to each other on the promenade: the Passeig Neptuno. This beach quickly becomes the Paltja de Cabanyal then the Platja de Malvarrosa and finally the Platja de Alboraia. The water off these beaches isn’t crystal clear, due to the proximity of the port, but it is still fine for swimming. (Beaches south of the port have clearer water, but fewer amenities, and are hard to reach by public transport.) The successive beaches feature rows of beach huts, sun-loungers for rent, snack bars, playgrounds and showers. A long, modern promenade, lined with palm trees, backs all the beaches and is full of bars and restaurants. The beaches are quieter the further north you go, but in high season you won’t find one that isn’t busy.