AS much as anything, seafood paella enticed me to Valencia. That and the fact that it’s an ancient city on the Mediterranean coast, and its very name evokes images of sun-ripened oranges.
As it turned out, I saw only one orange tree in the Spanish city of Valencia, and it was a rather straggly example of the species. The seafood paella -- and I had sample tastes at four restaurants -- was so overwhelmingly fishy that I opted for other choices. Twice I picked chicken paella, demonstrating my preference by pointing at the sample dishes in the windows.
That was great, except both times I had it, I kept wondering why Spanish chickens would all have such oddly misshapen legs. Then it came to me: The “chicken” legs came off of rabbits.
It’s a good metaphor for Valencia: Some aspects of the city failed to live up to my preconceived notions, but it had other surprises in store.
Like the Valencia Cathedral. In the same huge, incredible church where this chalice said to be from the “Last Supper” is displayed -- a cathedral built on the ruins of a mosque between 1262 and 1426 -- you can also see the mummified severed arm of St. Vincent.
Valencia, 220 miles southeast of Madrid, was once one of the continent’s most important ports and richest cities. You see evidence of that old wealth in the historic quarter, where fine old Spanish baroque, Gothic and Romanesque buildings line stone-paved squares whose centers bubble with lavish fountains.
Then there’s another whole area at the other end of the spectrum of centuries: the City of Arts and Sciences.
Here, on an 87-acre, derelict parcel, the city has spent nearly $3 billion in recent years to produce a series of futuristic crystal palaces that serve as museums and performance spaces. Conductor Zubin Mehta, among others, has been auditioning musicians to be part of a new orchestra that will begin playing in October in the ultra-modern performing arts center.
Four of the buildings in the City of Arts and Sciences were designed by the dazzling architect Santiago Calatrava, a native of Valencia whose bridges and buildings have met wide acclaim throughout Europe and the Americas. All of the buildings are surrounded by huge reflecting pools and fountains. Each one was clearly designed to make a double visual impact -- once when viewed as a solid white structure with lots of glass, and again when seen as a shimmering reflection in bright blue water.
My notion of Valencia as a Mediterranean coastal city turned out to be off: Yes, it’s still a major port city, but its attractive, populated portions are well out of view of the water. The port for years has been merely functional, the buildings around it allowed to deteriorate. That, however, is changing. Big time, and quickly.
The America’s Cup is coming to Valencia next summer, and the government is spending $637.5 million to spiff up the city. Most of that money is going to the waterfront, in a spasm of pride about being the first European city to host the cup since 1851.
During my visit last spring, you could see the frenzy of activity. Old customhouses and other buildings meant to support the shipping industry had already been given facelifts and were painted in lovely pastel colors. The city is also creating a waterfront promenade that will be lined with palm trees, restaurants and bars.
In a once-derelict area being called America’s Cup Park, a new $46 million, glass-front building at the race’s starting point will have six restaurants and 20 bars, clubs and entertainment venues.
Money has also been set aside to bury some streets underground in order to create a new 64-acre park downtown, and Calatrava is designing three translucent crystal towers for offices, luxury apartments and a hotel.
And that’s just the government money pouring in; private industry has taken note of the America’s Cup and the long-term visibility it’s expected to bring the city. Hotel developers, including the Hilton and Westin chains, are among those with major construction projects under way, planned or completed.
It’s still got some fixing up to do, but Spain’s third-largest city is poised to take what it considers its rightful place as one of Europe’s major tourist destinations.
Valencia was rather open in its opposition to the long-lived dictator Francisco Franco, who, among other things, banned the Valencian language. The city clearly suffered under his rule, and few mourned his demise in 1975. Within about five years, Valencia began its facelift. Clearly, much of that energy and pride was initially focused on the old quarter.
You don’t need to study a map and carefully mark up all the attractions you wish to see. The area is compact, and streets inevitably run into squares with other old-quarter streets leading from them. Just start walking, with a guidebook in hand so you can identify what you’re looking at, and over the course of, say, two days you’ll stumble across most everything you’ll want to see.
My first day’s walk from a hotel in the old city took me, without plans, straight to the main square, Plaza de la Reina, a gracious square outlined with sidewalk cafes. An entire quarter of the square is taken up by the massive Valencia Cathedral. You can get a great view of the entire city if you’re willing to walk up more than 200 stone steps to the top of the cathedral’s bell tower. Or so I’m told. I headed straight through the intricately carved stone doors into the central nave, with its soaring Gothic ceiling.
The cathedral doubles as an art museum, and among other things houses the oldest Renaissance painting in Spain: an Italian work created in 1470. More than a dozen small chapels, each with its own religious artworks, surround the nave.
My first day’s walk also took me to three other lovely old squares and past the amazingly beautiful and elaborately sculpted Lonja de la Seda, the 15th-century silk exchange market. I likewise stumbled on the Mercado Central, where merchants have 1,000 stalls for selling produce, fish and other food.
My second day -- the old quarter is worth two days -- I hopped a tour bus to get a good overview, and a drop-off in front of the Museo de Bellas Artes, the best of the various museums in Valencia. El Greco and Goya are the most famous artists represented there, but the collection spans centuries, with a focus on paintings of the Gothic period.
The bus allowed me a quick summation of things I didn’t have time to see up close, such as the Torres de Serranos, a 14th-century gateway that is one of several remaining sections of the medieval walls that once surrounded the city.
The bus also toured the other side of town, and the City of Arts and Sciences. Although I think Calatrava does the most interesting and dramatic work of any living architect, when I first saw from the bus windows the city he mostly designed, my first thought was “The Jetsons.” To appreciate it, you have to get up close.
Imagine a building constructed to look like a complex model of a giant human eye, and you’ll get a pretty good image of the shape of L’Hemisferic building in the City of Arts and Sciences. Inside, a planetarium shares space with giant Imax film screens.
Then there’s the Museum of Sciences. It has the usual array of exhibits and demonstrations you’ll find in the biggest and best science museums closer to home. But the building, now that’s unique.
More than six tons of steel hold together 215,278 square feet of glass separated into more than 4,000 windowpanes. The thing itself is fantastic and a bit eerie to begin with, and it gets even stranger when reflected outward on the pool below.
The aquarium, said to be the largest in Europe, doesn’t have as many exhibits as, say, Baltimore’s or Monterey’s. But again, the building is magnificent, including a restaurant which is walled with fish tanks.
The 229-foot-high performing arts center, which with great fanfare opens for its first opera season in October, is as distinctive as the Sydney Opera House and may well become as famous. Its main hall holds 1,700 people, the amphitheater another 1,500. Two other performance spaces each seat 400, and all four spaces are said to have advanced, state-of-the-art technology. The raves in Europe about the City of Arts and Sciences have already made Valencia the fastest-growing destination in Spain. Last year, the city of 750,000 had 5.1 million visitors.
Next summer, when the world’s fastest-sailing vessels begin competing for the world’s most prestigious yachting title, the spotlight will be on Valencia. By then, a third major section of the city will be tourist-ready, and Valencia is betting the world will love what it sees.
