Major monuments on the target list for today included Valencia Cathedral, the Torres de Serranos, the Torres de Quart, and the Llotja de la Seda (declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996. The Museu de Belles Arts de València (Valencia Fine Arts Museum) houses a large collection of paintings from the 14th to the 18th centuries, including works by Velázquez, El Greco, and Goya. The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (Valencian Institute of Modern Art) houses both permanent collections and temporary exhibitions of contemporary art and photography.
Add to that list the Cathedral (almost obligatory on this trip, it would seem), the Basilica (attached to the Cathedral by a magnificent renaissance archway), and the Central market.
Not on the list due to time and weather constraints was the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences), an entertainment-based cultural and architectural complex.
What struck me today was how low-rise Valencia is, particularly for a city of its size which is also the administrative centre for the Valencian region. Many of the buildings in the city centre date to the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and they are all the better for it! Also, outside a quite small but busy shopping area, most of the buildings are residential, so the city has a very real lived-in feel (in a good way). Valencia is easy to get around by foot, with all of the main city sights in a relatively compact area, and overall it has a nice feel to it. However, I think that more than a day for a tourist would start to stretch the friendship a little.
La Lonja de la Seda is a late Valencian Gothic style civil building, built between 1482 and 1548, and isone of the principal tourist attractions in the city. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 as "the site is of outstanding universal value as it is a wholly exceptional example of a secular building in late Gothic style, which dramatically illustrates the power and wealth of one of the great Mediterranean mercantile cities."
Visitors step through heavy doors into a beautiful soaring Gothic hall whose ceiling is held up by graceful twisting columns. The columns and the rib etched into the ceiling represent palms, emblematic of honest business dealings. The ceiling was once painted blue, adorned with stars. This venue served as a commodity exchange at the heyday of Valencia's power, a period dating from around the mid-1400s through the archbishopric of the Borgia who became a Pope, and well into the 16th century. The grand hall lets out onto an enclosed orange garden on one side, and to a small room like a chapel with leaded windows, which itself leads onto a Baroque chamber with heavy wooden coffered ceilings. Above that hall is another large assembly room. These two rooms served as courts. Various city officials and a garrison also lived in the compound.
The Miguelet (or Miquelet) bell tower of the Valencia Cathedral was open for climbing, and so while the weather was semi-holding (not all-out raining, but not great), it was time to get climbing the 207 steps on the narrow spiral staircase (honestly, the builders of these things really didn't consider 21st Century tourism). The Miquelet's construction was started in 1381 and completed in 1418; the tower takes its name from the largest bell, called Miquel (Miguel).
The views over inner-city Valencia are worth the effort (and 2 Euros), as you can see:
Now for the interesting bit.
In the Cathedral is the Chapel of the Holy Grail - that's right, according to the locals, inside this chapel, behind glass, but clearly and proudly on display, is THE Holy Grail - the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper. Now, perhaps I'm a little sceptical when it comes to these things, but this Holy Grail looks surprisingly unlike something that you would have expected Jesus Christ to have used - even knowing that it would be his last supper with the Disciples: of course, stranger things have happened, and it is possible that I'm wrong. Either way, it's worth checking out when you're in the neighbourhood, so I did.
Of course, if really is THE Holy Grail, knowing this could have saved Monty Python a whole lot of trouble and farted at and generally abused by those Frenchies ... (but then it would have been a disappointingly short movie too).
To the north and the east of the city are a couple of the old gate-forts, both set opposite the Jardin del Turia.
And that was more than enough for one day, and for Valencia; well-worth stopping here, but a day is probably a good amount of time for this city.
Tomorrow - off to Barcelona, for the last stop in Spain.