Explorer Valence

Valencia's Mercado Central is a covered food market designed by Alexandre Soler March and Francesc Guàrdia and built between 1914 and 1928 in Valencian Art Nouveau style. Under its iron-framed domes and tiled walls, more than 8,000 m² of floor hold stalls selling fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and local produce. It faces the Lonja de la Seda.

The Lonja de la Seda is a late Gothic merchants' exchange built between 1482 and 1533 opposite Valencia's Mercado Central. Its Trading Hall has twisted columns rising to a ribbed vault, and the complex also includes the Consulate of the Sea pavilion, a central tower and a courtyard of orange trees. UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1996.

The Church of Santos Juanes stands on Valencia's Plaza del Mercado, facing the Central Market and the Silk Exchange. Built on the site of a mosque in the 13th century, it was rebuilt in Baroque style after a fire in 1592 and finished around 1700. Its market façade has a clock tower and a stucco Virgin of the Rosary; inside are vault frescoes by Antonio Palomino.

Valencia Cathedral was consecrated in 1238 on the site of the city's former mosque and is built mainly in Valencian Gothic style, with Romanesque, Renaissance and Baroque additions. Its octagonal bell tower is the Micalet, and a side chapel keeps an agate cup venerated as the Holy Grail. The visit includes the cathedral museum.

The Church of San Nicolás is a Gothic parish church in Valencia's old town, founded in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 15th. Between 1690 and 1693 its single nave was covered with Baroque frescoes of the lives of Saint Nicholas and Saint Peter Martyr, designed by Antonio Palomino and painted by Dionís Vidal.

The Torres de Serranos are a gate of Valencia's medieval city wall, built by Pere Balaguer between 1392 and 1398 as two pentagonal towers flanking a round-arched entrance. From 1586 to 1887 they served as a prison for nobles. Visitors climb by stairs to the terraces, which look over the old town and the former bed of the Turia.

The Turia Gardens are a public park of about 136 hectares laid out from 1986 in the former bed of the Turia River, which was diverted south of Valencia after a flood. Around 8.5 km long, the park has paths, cycle lanes, sports grounds, fountains and playgrounds under the old bridges, and runs from Bioparc to the City of Arts and Sciences.

Mestalla Stadium is the home ground of Valencia CF, opened on 20 May 1923 and named after a historic irrigation canal. It holds about 49,400 spectators in steep stands close to the pitch, hosted matches of the 1982 World Cup and is the oldest stadium in La Liga. Guided tours visit the press room and the players' dressing room.

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía is Valencia's opera house, designed by Santiago Calatrava as the last large building of the City of Arts and Sciences and opened in October 2005. A 230 m steel crest arches over the 75 m high building, which holds four auditoriums, the largest seating 1,470. Outside performances, visitors can tour the halls with a guide, audio guide or leaflet.

L'Hemisfèric is the first building of Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences, designed by Santiago Calatrava and opened in April 1998. Shaped like an eye, it is about 110 m long, with aluminium shutters that lift like an eyelid over a shallow pool. Under the concrete dome inside, a large curved screen shows documentary films and planetarium programmes.

The Museu de les Ciències is the science museum of Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences, a building by Santiago Calatrava that opened in November 2000. Its white concrete ribs and glass façades, about 40,000 m² and 55 m high, recall the skeleton of a whale; inside are hands-on exhibitions on science and technology and a stage for live science demonstrations.

Bioparc Valencia is a 10-hectare zoo at the western end of the Turia gardens, owned by the city and opened in 2008 to replace the old municipal zoo. It focuses on African wildlife, shown in recreated savannah, equatorial forest, wetland and Madagascar habitats where rivers, ponds and rocks rather than bars separate the animals from visitors.

L'Oceanogràfic is the aquarium of Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences, opened in 2003 at the eastern end of the former Turia riverbed. Its buildings, including the restaurant roofed by Félix Candela's concrete shells, house about 45,000 animals of 500 species in zones for the Mediterranean, the Arctic, tropical seas and the Red Sea, plus a dolphinarium.