In 138 BC, a Roman consul named Decimus Junius Brutus planted a settlement on the banks of the Turia river and called it Valentia Edetanorum — a reward for veterans who had fought the Lusitanian Wars. Over the next two millennia, that modest military colony became a Moorish intellectual hub, a medieval financial powerhouse, and eventually one of Europe's most quietly extraordinary cities. Valencia is the kind of place that rewards curiosity: it gave Spain its first printed book, built Europe's oldest operating silk exchange, invented paella beside a coastal lagoon, and then turned a flood-ravaged riverbed into a 9-kilometre urban park after its citizens demanded it. Today it holds a UNESCO World Heritage site, a holy relic disputed and revered in equal measure, and a futurist cityscape designed by one of the world's most polarising architects. This Valencia Spain travel guide cuts past the surface to give you the history, architecture, culture, and insider knowledge that most visitors never encounter.
Valencia's Hidden History: From Roman Colony to Mediterranean Powerhouse
Most travel content skips Valencia's layered past entirely, arriving straight at paella and sunshine. That's a shame — because the history here is genuinely gripping, and much of it is still physically visible across the city today.
Valencia (originally Valentia Edetanorum) was founded in 138 BC by Roman consul Decimus Junius Brutus as a planned settlement for veterans of the Lusitanian Wars — placing it among Spain's oldest Roman cities. Remnants of that founding era are still visible at the Plaza de la Virgen, whose elliptical form follows the outline of the Roman circus that once stood there.
In 711 AD, Moorish forces swept through the Iberian Peninsula and the city became Balansiyya, reaching a cultural and intellectual peak under the Taifa Kingdom during the 11th century. Then came one of history's more extraordinary episodes: in 1094, the legendary Castilian knight Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar — El Cid — captured Valencia and ruled it as an independent lord until his death in 1099. His story is inseparable from the city's identity.
The Aragonese king James I retook Valencia from Moorish control in 1238, triggering a Golden Age that made the city the financial capital of the Crown of Aragon. By the 15th century, Valencia was one of the most prosperous cities on the Mediterranean. In 1474, it produced the first printed book in Spain. Eight years later, construction began on La Lonja de la Seda, the silk exchange that would operate continuously until the 19th century — the oldest of its kind in Europe.
All of this is walkable. The Highlights & Secrets of Valencia tour and the Kickstart Valencia tour both thread these centuries together through the streets of the old city, connecting the physical evidence to the stories most guidebooks leave out.
One of Valencia's most underrated qualities is the sheer chronological range of its architecture — and the fact that you can walk between Gothic, Baroque, Modernista, and 21st-century masterpieces within the same compact city core.
Gothic Valencia begins with La Lonja de la Seda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built between 1482 and 1548. Its Sala de Contratación (trading hall) is defined by eight slender helical columns, each rising 15 metres to a vaulted ceiling without a single interrupting capital — an engineering statement as much as an aesthetic one. Nearby, Valencia Cathedral, constructed between 1262 and 1482, claims to house the Holy Grail: a 1st-century AD agate cup that multiple researchers have authenticated as consistent with that period and region. Its octagonal Miguelete bell tower rewards the 207-step climb with a 360° panorama across the old city's rooftops.
Gothic civic architecture also includes the Torres de Serranos (1392), one of the best-preserved Gothic city gates in Europe — repurposed as a state prison until as late as 1887, and today offering free entry on Sunday mornings.
Into the Baroque: the Palau del Marqués de Dos Aigües (1740) is impossible to walk past without stopping — its alabaster doorway, carved by sculptor Ignacio Vergara, twists into an almost hallucinogenic tableau of figures, water, and foliage. Inside, it houses the Museo Nacional de Cerámica.
Art Nouveau and Modernisme peak at the Mercado Central (1928), one of Europe's largest covered markets at 8,000 m², its iron-and-glass dome and polychrome ceramic details drawing as many architecture lovers as food shoppers.
Contemporary: Santiago Calatrava's Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (1998–2005) was built on the drained Turia riverbed following the catastrophic 1957 flood. The complex covers 350,000 m² and includes the Palau de les Arts opera house, the interactive Science Museum, and L'Oceanogràfic — Europe's largest aquarium. The Highlights & Secrets of Valencia tour, the Valencia Full Day tour, and the Valencia Bike Tour all cover this architectural arc in different ways and at different paces.
Valencia's Living Culture: Paella, Las Fallas & the Mediterranean Way of Life
Valencia isn't a museum city — it's a city that lives loudly and with considerable pride. Understanding its culture means going deeper than the postcard version.
Paella was not invented in a restaurant. It originated in the rice paddies surrounding l'Albufera, Valencia's coastal lagoon, where farmers cooked rabbit, chicken, and seasonal vegetables over fires of orange wood — never seafood, which arrived only in later coastal adaptations. The authentic recipe is today protected under the Denominació d'Origen Arròs de València. The Food & Drinks Valencia tour and the Albufera Day Trip both take you to the source.
Las Fallas (15–19 March) is Valencia's most spectacular annual event and, since 2016, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Each year, around 800 satirical papier-mâché monuments — ninots — are erected across the city by neighbourhood associations (comissions falleres), many costing hundreds of thousands of euros to build. On the night of 19 March, La Cremà, every single one is burned to the ground — except the single piece saved by popular vote, which enters permanent collection at the Museu Faller.
The Turia Garden has one of the best origin stories in European urban planning. After the catastrophic 1957 Turia flood killed over 80 people, Franco's government proposed a motorway through the drained riverbed. Valencians pushed back with the protest slogan 'El llit del Turia és nostre i el volem verd' (The Turia bed is ours and we want it green). They won. The result is the Jardín del Turia — 9 km of parkland threading through the city, arguably Europe's most successful urban green corridor.
Valencia was named European Green Capital 2024, backed by over 180 km of bike lanes, the Mercat Central's zero-waste market initiatives, and the 21,000-hectare Albufera Natural Park on the city's southern edge. The Valencia Family Tour weaves the Turia Garden, the Science Museum, and local food culture into a single day perfectly suited to all ages.
Explore Valencia With a Local: Private Tours That Go Beyond the Surface
Reading about Valencia's 2,000 years of history, its helical Gothic columns, its flood-turned-park, and its paella origin story is one thing. Walking it with someone who knows which courtyard to duck into, which market stall to order from, and which detail on the cathedral facade most visitors walk past without noticing — that's something else entirely.
Local Cool Tour's Valencia guides are exactly that kind of company. Small groups, private formats, and itineraries shaped around how you actually travel — whether that's a short orientation or a full day across every layer the city has to offer.
