Valencia

Distance

21.1 km

Time

about 6 hours

Streets

192

Steps

1 street with steps

Start point

Llotja de la Seda

Phone needed while walking

no

Works offline

yes

Expires

never

Landmarks

What I would eat first.

Landmarks are fruit. The bigger the sight, the bigger the bonus.

• Llotja de la Seda 1,500 points

  When silk made this city rich, this is where the money changed hands. Go into the great hall and look at what holds the roof up. I am not telling you what they are doing. Then look at the tower and wonder what it was for. Silk, by the way, is not food. I checked.

• Catedral de València 500 points

  The Seu has a bell tower called the Micalet, named after its own bell. Once a week, at noon, a meeting gathers at one of its doors, out in the open, whatever the weather. And somewhere inside sits a very famous cup. I am not telling you whose. I asked whether it takes soup. Apparently not.

• Corts Valencianes 500 points

  Lawmakers argue in here these days, which seems a waste of good stone. Before them it was a 15th-century home, and the household who kept it was famous far beyond this street. I am not telling you how famous. Later it did a humbler job for a while. That part I like best.

• Torres dels Serrans 500 points

  The big gate on the edge of the old riverbed, where the garden runs now. From the front it is two stone lumps with a mouth between them, which I find very relatable. Walk through to the other side before you decide what it is. The front and the back do not agree. It has also looked after some very valuable guests. I am not telling you which.

• Basílica de la Mare de Déu dels Desemparats 250 points

  She sits on the square that was once the Roman forum, and the city has a pet name for her. Not a grand one. A fond one. Once a year the square gives her a present so big it needs a crew. I am not telling you what. I can tell you it is not edible, which I hold against it.

• Església de Sant Nicolau 250 points

  King James I founded the congregation here in 1238. Step inside and look up: the reason to come is over your head, and there is a lot of it. A man who knows ceilings better than most gave it a very big nickname. I am not telling you which. It is the only ceiling I have ever wanted to eat more than the floor.

• Mercat Central 250 points

  A market hall, open since 1928. By a long way my favourite building in the city. Look at the very top of the domes. Somebody keeps watch up there. I am not telling you who. I once tried to move in here. They noticed.

• Palau del Marqués de Dosaigües 250 points

  Stand at the front door and give it time. It needs it: every inch is busy. Two stone men on it are hard at work. I am not telling you at what, but the name on the house is a clue. Inside waits a ride grander than most houses. The whole front looks edible. It is not. I asked.

Eating

Actual food.

Valencia cooks from its fields. The rice goes into the paella and the tiger nuts go into the horchata. Plenty of cities make you hunt for one famous plate. Here I just follow the crops.

Checked 25 September 2026.

Why here

Somebody stood here and decided.

On a small island in the river Turia, close to the sea, with a Roman road running straight through it: the Via Heraclea, later called the Via Augusta. From that day on the river decided what the city would look like. Water on every side and a road through the middle. A town built around its delivery route. I understand that completely.

Sources: www.valencia.es, www.valencia.es

Who ruled

Everyone who thought they owned this.

I outlasted all of them. It is the one thing I am good at.

138 BC–711

Roman Valentia. Once it got going it grew fast: new settlers, a forum, a circus, a river port, and water piped into town. When that water stopped, the city went without running water until the middle of the 19th century. I have waited longer for less.

Sources: www.valencia.es, www.valencia.es

711–1238

Balansiya, as the Arabic sources call it. Abd Allah al-Balansi ran the area almost as his own and built a lavish palace on the edge of town, la Russafa; today's Ruzafa district still carries the name. After the caliphate of Córdoba fell in 1010, Valencia became a kingdom of its own and got a new wall. An early water mill dug up by the Portal Nou shows the huerta, the market gardens around the city, was already being farmed. When James I took the city in 1238, five centuries of Muslim culture ended, and they left a deep mark. First the mill, then the vegetables. That is how I would have planned it.

Sources: www.valencia.es

1238–1499

King James I and the Kingdom of Valencia. He gave the city laws of its own, els Furs, and later stretched them over the whole kingdom. In the 15th century the city boomed: a municipal bank, the Taula de canvis, backed the traders, silk cloth led the economy, and merchants came from all over Europe. All of Europe came to shop. I would have come for the market gardens.

Sources: www.valencia.es

Three facts

Three things I know about this place.

1. The Plaça de la Mare de Déu sits on top of the Roman forum. Valencia's middle has stayed put since the Romans, and it is still the city's grandest square. I respect a place that does not move. I have not moved much either.

   Sources: hisenda.gva.es

2. A few steps from that square, a shallow pool lies over an excavation, and you look straight through the water at the ruins underneath. The dig beside it is called l'Almoina, which means alms. Ruins served under glass, except the glass is water. I approve of the presentation.

   Sources: www.visitvalencia.com

3. The river Turia no longer runs past the Old Town. After the flood of 14 October 1957 it was given a new course, and the plan for the empty bed was a fast road for cars. Then the neighbours took up the slogan 'The river is ours and we want it green', and they won: the old riverbed became the largest urban park in Spain. A road that never came, and a garden instead. My favourite kind of ending.

   Sources: www.valencia.es

Counted from the streets in the level itself, not from a guidebook.

• 192streets
• 1,159dots
• 16.8km of street
• 21.1km on foot
• 6.0hours at a stroll