¡Benvinguts a València!
¡Bienvenidos a Valencia!
Welcome to València!

We begin our tour at the main city gates. We are standing on the bridge over the River Turia. Today, we still call it “El Rio” but in 1957 it flooded with such ferocity and caused such massive damage to the city that the national government launched a massive infrastructure project to redirect the river south of the city. Today, it is this lovely park. 

Turning from this amazing park we call El Rio, we turn our attention to the Torres de Serrano. The river is part of the reason this is the main city gate. First, this is the northern gate during a time when the King of Aragon was also the King of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon. The King of Aragon had his capital in Zaragoza to the north of Valencia. Second, and perhaps most important, this was a river port. The Turia was navigable in its earlier days. The Romans had a port near here, and from the fifteenth century, dignitaries would come up the river to arrive at this ceremonial gate. 

A note about our gates and walls. The walls were removed in 1865 as part of the modernization efforts underway. The city was expanding and the walls made this difficult. In addition, they were expensive to maintain and to no purpose as modern warfare had made them largely irrelevant. The only survivors are two of the four primary gates: Torres de Serranos and Torres de Quart, both of which were in use as prisons at the time. The Puerta del Mar was demolished, but there is a replica in the Plaza de la Puerta del Mar constructed in 1944.

After we move through the tower, we will walk to the left and travel up a city street to walk along the path of the Roman Cardo, the principal north-south street in any Roman city. This is where archeologists discovered the remains of the northern Roman-era gate to Valencia. The current state decision is to keep the remains underground until more substantial work can be done to illuminate this area.

We continue along to arrive at the L’Almodi de València, or in Castilian, El Almudín. This is a fourteenth century grain storage building that was built on the foundations of an Umayyad fortress. I find this particularly interesting as part of the way that humans tend to use the same spaces for similar purposes, often without intending to do so. More on this later.

To the south here, we can step up onto a grand plaza, the Plaza de Decimo Junius Brutus. And it is from here that we really dig into the first phase of the history of València, or as it was called, Valentia Edetanorum.  

Roman Valentia Edetanorum

In 138 BCE, Decimo Junius Brutus was elected co-Consul with Publius Cornelius Scipio. One of the acts he pushed through the Senate was the establishment of the city of Valentia Edetanorum where he settled the veterans of the wars against the Lusitanians. Prior to this time, it is thought there was an Edetanori village here, but there is no firm information about that. The Edetanori capital city, Edeta was the modern town of Lliria, west of Valencia. 

In this plaza we see a large reflecting pool. Approach it and look through the water and you will see the baths of Valentina Edetanorum. This area was the home of an alms house built in the 14th century and thus the name La Almoina. The building had various purposes over the centuries, but was demolished in the nineteenth century. In 1985 the basilica (pink church to the west) purchased the land from the archdiocese for an expansion project. They did not dig far before they encountered the excellent remains of Valentia Edetanorum. 

Let’s visit the museum! 

After we have our tickets sorted, let’s look at the map on the wall here. You can see where the forum is located. Remember that we use the same spaces for similar purposes? Today, that forum is the Plaza de la Virgin. The Cardo Maximus and the Decumanus Maximus intersect just east of the forum. You notice the bath houses, the temple to the Nymphs, and notice the granary. It is approximately the same location as the medieval granary we passed on our way in. Also, the Cardo is still in town as the Carrer del Salvator and after the cathedral and Plaza de la Reina, Carrer de Sant Vicent Martyr. The Decumanus is here as the Carrer dels Cavallers (Knights Street). 

Layers of History: Romans, Visigoths, Moors, Christians

If we turn, we have a bronze model of the ruins we will explore below. Archeology is found in layers, so here we see three layers in the different sections of the dig site. In the upper right we have foundations of the Visigothic cathedral complex. The Visigoths ruled Valencia for about three centuries  from 413 until 714 when the Umayyad emirate took the city and called it Balansiyya. In the left of the model you see a partial rectangle set at an angle to the whole. This is the remains of a Moorish palace that sat here sometime between 714 and 1238. We do have a good collection of pottery dating from this period, but it was a troubled time that results in very erratic archeological remains and almost non-existent documentary evidence. 

To understand why we have such erratic information about these years, one must see the changes wrought after the fall of the Umayyad caliphate in 1010. At that point there was some variability in the kings of Valencia. Most islamic, but some, rather famously, christian. Have you ever heard of El Cid, aka Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar? That didn’t last long, but it speaks to the variability and the fluidity between Islamic and Christian kings. The Almoravid Masdali takes the city from El Cid’s widow in 1109 and it is an Almoravid taifa until 1238 when the king of Aragon fancied his chances and took it from the Almoravids.  

Roman Baths of Valentia

After we enjoy viewing the pottery that was restored from the dig, let’s move downstairs and look at the exhibits. The museum scholars and staff have done a lovely job bringing to life this ancient piece of the city. We begin with the baths. Baths were very important to Roman life. In addition to the practical use that we share, it was also a place for socialization. This was a typical balineae for a modest colonial roman city and not a full thermae. One would begin in the tepidarium to warm up and prepare for the caldarium where the water was closest to the fire. This would be on the left here. Finally, toward the right we would have a frigidarium that would have water that was not heated and as cool as possible. 

As we move to the right, you will see three distinct low walls that are the remains of the original bath building. As we will see more of later, Valentia Edetanorum was established in 138 BCE but was caught in the civil wars between Sulla and Cinna-Marius. A branch of that war was fought in Hispania with Marians represented by Quintus Sertorius. In 75 BCE a pitched battle was fought just outside the walls of Valentia between the legates of Sertorius, Marcus Perpenna and Gaius Herennius, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, aka Pompey Magnus. Perpenna and Herennius were seriously outmatched and the city of Valentia was destroyed. It will not be officially re-established as a city until the reign of Augustus about fifty years later. 

All this explains how we have two ages in some of the pieces of the baths. As we walk to the back right, we will see the crossing of the Cardo and Decumanus. We are also reminded that funereal monuments in Roman cities were always kept outside the city walls. 

Roman Buildings and Development

Returning and walking a bit past we will see a lovely model of the city in the earlier phase. You’ll notice the baths with rounded roofs, the temple to the Nymphs or Nymphaeum, the housing building, and the grain storage building. Past this model is the actual Decumanus and then the beginning of the grain storage building foundations. 

Walking on we will see an exhibit that talks about the Almoina or Alms House that served the sick and the poor, particularly during the Black Death in the fourteenth century. Continuing on, we see a series of pillars that lead onto the forum of Valentia. Here the excavation stops as we are moving closer to the basilica and the plaza that sit on the site of the ancient forum. Look right to see a recovered mosaic that is mounted on the wall.

Left and left to see a larger model of the city around 200 CE. Here we have more buildings and larger buildings than the earlier model. The forum is fully formed with a temple, a basilica (the source of the term for a special church), and the two curia where the senate of Valentia would meet. 

Roman Christians and Visigoths

As we walk up, you’ll pass over a monumental well, and we reach a display that does a lovely job of presenting the destruction of Valentia in 75 BCE and the purpose of a basilica on the forum. Then we will move to late Roman Valentia to see the building in which Saint Vincent the Martyr was held. He was actually a deacon in the church of Caesar Augusta (modern Zaragoza) and was brought to Valentia to be tried by the Roman governor of the region. He refused to renounce his religious beliefs and was executed in 304 CE. He has been venerated here in Valencia since then and the cathedral holds a significant relic for the faithful that we will see later. 

As we continue we will see the foundations of the Visigothic cathedral complex. When you are finished enjoying the displays and the model of Visigothic Valentia, we will make our way back up and out to the Plaza Decimus Junius Brutus. 

At this point in our tour, we will adjourn to a cafe to enjoy a beverage and chat about all that we have seen so far. After our break we will start to explore the changes that developed after the king of Aragon saw an opportunity in the weakening taifa of Balansiyya. In 1238, Jaume Primero de Aragon became King of Valencia under the crown of Aragon.

But now, it is time for a beverage. Agua con gas? Café con leche? Agua de Valencia? Cerveza doble?