Valencia has many claims to fame: the birthplace of paella, the growers of Valencia oranges, the cradle of ceramics production, a World Design Capital, and the 2024 European Green Capital. Valencia is a city of contrasts, where the futuristic architecture of Santiago Calatrava shares the same space as UNESCO World Heritage sites, where the past and present collide in a fascinating mashup of culture, cuisine, and commerce.
This Mediterranean seaside city shows a different side of Spain, where progressive ideas harmonize with a reverence for its cultural roots. My search for experiences beyond the mainstream attractions of Madrid or Barcelona led me to Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city. I travel to connect with craft and culture, and Valencia offers a thriving arts, architecture, cultural, and dining scene.
I started my trip not at the obvious choice, Valencia’s iconic City of Arts and Sciences, but rather at the city’s old fishermen’s quarters, El Cabanyal district. A stroll along the mazelike, gentrified streets reveals a mix of crumbling ceramic-clad facades and renovated polished modern mosaic curb appeal. El Cabanyal district of Valencia is just a short walk from the Mediterranean shoreline and Malvarossa beach. “Valencia is a city of the river and the sea,” says Adrian Torres Astaburuaga, an architect, urban planner, and my guide.
The former fishing huts flourish in bright ceramic mosaics, murals, and decoupaged pieces, breathing new cultural and economic life into this once humble neighborhood. The photogenic neighborhood exudes an artistic vibe reverberating from more than a century ago when Valencia’s world-famous painter Joaquín Sorolla once roamed these same streets in search of inspiration for his early paintings.
A monument, Valencia A Sorolla, stands at the neighborhood’s entrance. It is a public homage to Joaquin Sorolla Castida, who lived and painted in the late 19th century. Sorolla’s iconic images of València resonate as part of the city’s aesthetic identity a century after his death in 1923.
The Valencia Mar marina, which hosts world championship sailing competitions, fronts the neighborhood. During my visit in late February, the international annual youth regatta Optimist class and the adult international regatta of the Optimist class were taking place.
Valencia has 12 UNESCO World Heritage designations, comprised of places, events, and practices preserved for their contributions to the city’s history and culture. Valencia is one of Spain’s oldest settlements, founded by the Romans in 130 BC and subsequently ruled by different cultures.
A concentration of UNESCO sites clusters around the city’s historic center anchored by Plaza de la Virgen and announced by Serrano Towers.
A pedestrian bridge over Turia Gardens leads to Serrano Towers, remnants of the city wall at the entrance to the old town. The bridge offers a sweeping view of Valencia’s linear park built on the dried-up river bed of the Turia that serves as a recreational byway. The Turia riverbed is Valencia’s most important public project and source of civic pride. “Some say that the fight for democracy was won over the fight to turn the Turia riverbed into a public park,” Adrian explains. “Turia gardens originated from a flood in the 1950s, and Valencia’s dictator government decided to divert the water into a canal, emptying the river bed. Valencians fought to turn it into a park.” Adrian is one of the architects working on the final phase of Turia Gardens, Spain’s largest urban park, spanning over 250 acres. This multiyear redevelopment project helped Valencia earn the distinction as the 2024 European Green Capital from the European Commission, which honors cities that reduce their environmental impact and improve the quality of life for residents.
Plaza de la Virgen is a public square surrounded by iconic landmarks, including the Valencia Cathedral, the Basilica of the Virgin Mary, and the Fountain of Turia. The Valencia Cathedral dates from the 13th century and sits on a site once occupied by a mosque and a Roman temple. The limestone cathedral combines Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque architecture. Unlike other great cathedrals, it doesn’t entirely face a square. Its asymmetrical and complex footprint results from several phases of construction and architectural styles.
According to legend, the cathedral houses the famous Holy Grail, the chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper. For a birds-eye view of Valencia, purchase a ticket to climb the Cathedral’s bell tower, the Miguelete, built in the 14th-15th centuries and standing 167 feet. The stamina required to climb 207 steps is rewarded with a panoramic view of the cityscape.
Every Thursday at noon, the Tribunal de las Aguas (Tribunal of Waters) takes place at the Apostle’s door of the Cathedral. The one thousand-year-old tradition is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage designation for its gathering of judges who settle irrigation disputes. The tribunal consists of eight farmers who were democratically elected by Valencia farmers using the irrigation system. Judges sit in a circle on wood and leather 17th-century chairs, issue rulings, and pose for photos with tourists.
Nearby, the Silk Exchange Market, which thrived during Valencia’s Golden Age in the 15th and 16th centuries, is a UNESCO-protected site.
The Silk Road passed through Valencia, shaping its culture and commerce. Valencia thrived as a major silk-producing center, designing and manufacturing silk, which was bought and sold at the Silk Exchange. What’s striking about its civil Gothic architecture is the cathedral-like quality of design and construction dedicated to a public building for commoners.
I suggest timing your visit to experience the Las Fallas Festival, which is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list for its unique take on celebrating the arrival of spring. I visited Valencia in late February, just days before the start of Las Fallas. Streets were aglow with string lights and signs celebrating the event. Las Fallas celebrations begin March 1st with daily fireworks at 2 pm at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. On March 15th, workers, during the night, install more than 700 figures in the city’s streets and squares. The following day, Valencians wake up to these enormous caricatures and satirical statutes called ninots that serve as political, pop culture, and current event commentary. Artisans create these cardboard ninots for months before the main event when they are set on fire on the 19th and 20th amid a spectacle of light, music, and fireworks. Each year, Valencians vote to save two ninots, which find a permanent home in the Las Fallas museum.
Ninots up for a pardon are publicly displayed at the Ninot Exhibition at the Sciences Museum, part of the City of Arts and Sciences complex. Visitors can view and vote for their favorite ninots to spare from the flames until March 15th, when the two pardoned ninots are announced.
If you miss Las Fallas, I highly recommend visiting the Fallas Museum, which has hundreds of pardoned ninots on display, plus festival posters, costumes, and portraits of past Las Fallas queens.
For foodies, Valencia is a culinary playground with tastes and treats unique to the region. Horchaterias throughout the city serve the popular local drink horchata de chufa (also known as horchata), a sweet, milky-looking drink made from locally grown tiger nuts. I suggest visiting the 200-year-old Horchateria de Santa Catalina to sip and savor the drink while admiring the cafe’s ceramic-clad walls and murals.
Valencia is the birthplace of paella, Spain’s signature saffron rice dish, made with fresh seafood from the Mediterranean Sea. To connect with local culture and flavors, I suggest shopping at the city’s best-known markets, The Central Market and Mercado Colon. The Central Market is a modernist structure anchored by iron columns and a stained-glass dome housing over 1,200 stalls. Both markets are architectural and culinary attractions filled with fresh produce from local farmers and growers, fresh seafood, and tapas bars that serve regional dishes.
Valencia’s dedication as a cultural steward of its past, present, and future is on view in dozens of museums. The Centro de Arte Hortensia Herrero exhibits world-class contemporary art from the private collection of Hortensia Herrero, patron of the foundation that bears her name. The museum resides in the city’s center, in a 17th-century palace. More than 100 works are on view, including site-specific pieces created by artists for the museum.
Architecture lovers visit Valencia to experience the futuristic and fantastical works of Starchitect Santiago Calatrava. The native Valencian designed the city’s most iconic landmark and cultural complex, The City of Arts and Sciences. “Santiago Calatrava is Valencia’s most international architect, and the city bet on him, investing in his public architecture. In addition to designing the City of Arts and Sciences, he has built four city bridges. Calatrava is our ambassador, attracting tourists worldwide who visit Valencia to see his works and discover all of the historical and cultural attractions the city offers,” Adrian says.
Santiago Calatrava uses ceramic in contemporary applications. His techniques call to mind the works of Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudi’s style. Gaudi is known for decorating building facades with small, irregularly shaped ceramic pieces used in a montage effect. Calatrava uses monochrome-colored ceramic pieces in white or blue assemblages. Alongside The City of Arts and Sciences is the oceanographic park by Felix Candara, a Mexican Spanish architect
The complex includes the Hemisfèric, a digital 3D cinema with a vast concave screen, the Science Museum, and the Oceanogràfic, Europe’s largest aquarium with seven marine environments. CaixaForum is a multipurpose space that hosts temporary and permanent exhibits, live music, conferences, and shows .
“As Valencia was emerging from dark days of dictatorship in the 1980s, this idea of the Guggenheim effect took hold and transformed industrial and blighted areas of the city,” explains Adrian.
Valencia’s many prized natural resources include quality clay, the essential ingredient in ceramic production, making the city a leading ceramics manufacturer.
Castellon, just outside the city, is home to a concentration of ceramic factories producing tile. Many of these ceramics factories have been family-owned for several generations and produce machine-made and handmade ceramic and porcelain tiles. “Castellon exports almost 90 percent of the world’s ceramic tile and employs around 14 thousand people,” says Raoul Carnicer, CEO of Cevica, a maker of handmade ceramic and porcelain tiles. “Our handmade tiles undergo a long manual process filled with passion that starts with loading the clay mixing machines, inspecting the finished tiles, and packaging them,” says Raoul.
“Initially, in Castellone, people were handmaking porcelain items, including vases and plates, which evolved into making floor tile,” says Fernando Ferrer Hernandez, Owner of Grespania. The company makes large, thin tiles using technology that tracks each tile through every phase of the mechanized production process.
Valencia hosts one of the world’s largest tile shows, Cevisama, each February. I toured the show with Tile of Spain, a government marketing agency for tile producers. “Spain’s tile industry is a master of glazed wall tile, and Valencia producers make most of the glaze for the tile industry worldwide,” says Ryan Fasan, Tile of Spain expert. “The region’s ceramics industry is known for its ability to take centuries-old, manual, artisanal processes and translate the techniques into modern production,” Ryan says.
For a deeper dive into the region’s ceramics legacy, visit the Palacio del Marquez de Dos Aquas, which houses the National Ceramics Museum on the second floor. The museum showstopper is a recreated Valencian kitchen clad in decorative ceramic tiles. The first floor features palace rooms with Rococo-period furnishings and fixtures from the early 18th century.
Valencia, by night, is aglow with artfully illuminated public buildings, including the post office and telegraph building downtown. Architect Miguel Ángel Navarro Pérez designed the four-story building, which was finished in 1922 and features allegorical figures on its façade in an architectural mix of French eclecticism and Valencian modernism.
Valencia offers authentic encounters with Spain at a slower pace, allowing you to be fully present. If you’re looking for Spanish culture, cuisine, and history, Valencia delivers it all minus the tourist frenzy of Madrid or Barcelona and the all-night party vibe of Ibiza. To learn more, watch episodes of The Design Tourist, which feature my exploration of Valencia.
- Exploring the Curiosity of Cuba - April 11, 2025
- Valencia, Spain – Where the Silk Road Leads to a World Design Capital - July 30, 2024
- Exploring the Paths Less Traveled in Iceland - May 4, 2024
