History of Valencia

In 138 BC, the consul Decimus Junius Brutus founded Valentia as a settlement for his veteran legionaries. Located on a fluvial island of the Turia River, the city was born under the sign of bravery. Although it was destroyed during the Sertorian Wars (75 BC), this first settlement established “kilometre zero” in what is now Almoina, forever linking the city’s fate to the fertility of its lands and the proximity of the Mediterranean.

After a period of decline, Valencia was reborn under the rule of Augustus. In the 2nd century, it reached its Roman peak, equipping itself with infrastructures such as a circus with a capacity for 10,000 spectators. The city was organised around the Forum, at the intersection of the Cardo and the Decumanus. Today, walking along Calle Caballeros means stepping on that classical layout, while at the Hortensia Herrero Art Centre you can admire the impressive remains of the original seating of that great Roman circus.

With the decline of the Roman Empire, Valencia entered a period of transformation marked by the adoption of Christianity and the arrival of the Visigoths. The city turned inward, becoming an episcopal seat of great religious importance. From this period of “darkness” and transition, a hidden treasure remains: the Archaeological Crypt of the Prison of Saint Vincent, where the remains of an episcopal complex and a baptistery tell the story of the beginnings of Christian Valencia.

In 714, the Muslim arrival peacefully transformed the city’s layout and soul. Renamed Balansiya, the city became a centre of knowledge. The greatest Arab legacy was not stone, but water: the complex irrigation system that created the Valencian huerta. This heritage lives on every Thursday at the Water Tribunal, the oldest active judicial institution in the world, which has been settling irrigation disputes for over a thousand years.

The fragmentation of the Caliphate left Balansiya vulnerable. The most legendary milestone was the conquest by Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid, who became lord of the city in 1094. After his death, control passed to the Almoravids and later the Almohads, empires from North Africa that imposed strict military rule. This century and a half of constant warfare and shifting power weakened the city, paving the way for the final conquest by Jaume I.

On 9 October 1238, Jaume I the Conqueror entered the city, marking the beginning of the Christian era. The monarch granted Valencia its own laws, the Furs, which established the rights of its inhabitants and the identity of the Kingdom of Valencia. On the site of the former mosque, the first stone of the Cathedral was laid in 1262, consolidating the civil and religious centre of power that, two millennia later, remains the beating heart of the historic centre.

Valencia tested its courage when the King of Castile, Peter I “the Cruel”, besieged the city twice without managing to conquer it. This feat earned it the title of “Twice Loyal”, represented by the two “L”s on its current coat of arms. To strengthen its defences, the city walls were expanded and the imposing Serranos Towers (1392) were built. Designed as a triumphal gate and defensive stronghold, they are now one of the finest examples of European civil Gothic architecture.

During the 15th century, Valencia was the most important city of the Crown of Aragon. Its economic strength, driven by the silk trade, coincided with an unprecedented artistic and literary boom. It was the era of the Borgia Popes and the construction of the Silk Exchange, the pinnacle of civil Gothic architecture. In 1437, the city’s splendour was sealed with the arrival of the Holy Grail in the Cathedral. Valencia thus became a cultural and religious beacon, founding its University and attracting scholars from across Europe.

After the splendour of the previous century, the 16th began with the Revolt of the Germanías, an uprising of local guilds against the abuses of the nobility. The defeat of the “agermanats” at the hands of royal troops led to the viceroyalty of Germana de Foix. Her rule marked a period of harsh repression that brought about the end of guild autonomy. As a symbol of her power and legacy, together with the Duke of Calabria she founded the Monastery of San Miguel de los Reyes, a jewel of the Valencian Renaissance where both are buried today.

The year 1707 marked one of the most traumatic chapters. After the Battle of Almansa in the War of the Spanish Succession, Philip V abolished the Furs through the Nueva Planta Decree. Valencia lost its political autonomy and its medieval privileges. As a symbol of this resistance, the monarch’s portrait remains hung upside down in the museum of Xàtiva, recalling the end of a Valencia that once governed itself.

The 19th century began with the heroic defence against Napoleon’s troops (1808–1812); an act of bravery that earned the city the laurel branches on its coat of arms and left cannonball scars on the Quart Towers. Decades later, in 1865, Valencia broke free from its stone belt: the demolition of the city walls made way for the creation of the Eixample. This new district of wide streets and modernist gems, such as the Colón Market, symbolised the birth of modern Valencia.

Valencia became the capital of the Republic in 1936, the government’s last refuge before defeat. Franco’s victory in 1939 plunged the city into a harsh dictatorship marked by political repression and the suppression of Valencian identity. In this context, the tragic flood of 1957 took place, inundating the city and forcing the diversion of the Turia River. With the arrival of democracy in 1975, Valencia finally regained its freedoms and institutions.

Valencia today is the living result of its ability to reinvent itself. The City of Arts and Sciences, built on the former Turia riverbed, symbolises how a catastrophe and a dictatorship gave way to a green lung and creative freedom. European Green Capital in 2024, the city looks to the future without forgetting its roots: it protects its Arab huerta, honours its Gothic silk heritage and celebrates its light. A Roman past and a modern pulse in an eternal city.