Valencia Favorite Tips by DanielF

Churches galore

Favorite thing: As the rest of Spanish historic towns, Valencia is extremely rich in churches. Barroque is the predominant style in the Valencian churches and the characteristic blue-tiled domes are almost everpresent, but samples of almost all architectural styles are present in the city.

Valencia's Old City

Favorite thing: Valencia's old city is one of the biggest historical urban areas in Spain. This labyrinth of narrow lanes, where it is easy to get lost, offers almost everything: beautyfully renovated palaces, cozy squares, posh stores and restaurants, trendy and busy bars, but also misery, shabby areas and many crumblesome, dilapidated places.

The Old City District (Ciutat Vella) is located in the area formerly enclosed by the city walls, on a bend of the lower course of the river Túria. It comprises six neighbourhoods: la Seu, la Xerea, el Carme, el Pilar, el Mercat and Sant Francesc.

narrow streets

Favorite thing: For the most part, the old city district has preserved the Medieval urban grid of winding narrow streets that provide shadow and shelter from the heat of the torrid Valencian Summers, as well as interesting perspectives for photography.

Blasco Ibáñez Avenue

Favorite thing: Blasco Ibáñez was a famous Valencian writer who portraited the Valencian society of the XIX and early XX century.

the broadest avenue in Valencia is named after him. This avenue consisted in linking the Royal gardens with the beach through a very broad avenue with gardens in the middle.

the project was not totally completed, as it would mean to demolish a lot of building in the Cabanyal neighborhood, a former fishermen suburb. The plans to complete it are controversial.

The first part of the avenue are occupied by university building. Pictured is the building of the rectorate.

Ecclecticism

Favorite thing: Along with Art Nouveau, it was one of the most important construction styles in the beginning of the XX century. It incorporates decorative elements from any other style in search of an eye-catching result.

Modernisme

Favorite thing: Modernisme, the Spanish reply to the Art Nouveau style, found its bigger development in Barcelona, but Valencia is full of remarkable examples of this style with so many fans in our days.

Unlike in Barcelona, where most of the modernist buildings are concentrated in a rather compact area, modernist buildings in Valencia are more scattered around the city and mixed with buildings in different styles.

You can see this building at Ciril Amorós Street.

Regne de València

Favorite thing: The idea conceived by Ildefons Cerdà of cutting diagonally the eixample's grid with a broad avenue that should make communication easier has been copied by the Valencian urban planners. The Avenue of the Kingdom of Valencia, lined with tall palm trees, cuts diagonally the rational disposition of the house blocks from the Gran Vía to the Bridge of the Kingdom.

Eixample

Favorite thing: Following the racionalist model of the late XIX and early XX centuries, the city developed a whole new area known as Eixample or enlargement in order to accomodate the emerging bourgeoisy. This area present similarities with the Eixample in Barcelona, but at a smaller scale.The most common building styles to be found in this area range from ecclecticism to historicism and regionalism.

Alameda

Favorite thing: The new neighborhoods built on the other bank of the river, along the Alameda have become one of the most posh residential areas in the city. If you see the views from the appartments facing the river, you will understand why.

Russafa

Favorite thing: Russafa used to be an independent town out of the walls of the city. The urban growth and the demolition of the city walls resulted in the absortion of Russafa by Valencia.

The name of the neighborhood comes from an Arabic word that means "garden".

The irregular pattern of its streets is of a great contrast with the rational distribution of the house blocks in the surrounding area.