The Roman era

Valencia’s history dates back at least to the year 138 BC, when a few thousand Roman soldiers were stationed in a new Roman colony named Valentia Edetanorum.

The colony was built like many other Roman cities with a good location on a river and close to the sea. The city center was a forum, which was located at present-day Plaza de la Virgen. Here, the main streets crossed Cardo Maximus and Decumanus Maximus.

This basic city plan can be found in our Valencia day, where Cardo corresponds to Calle de Salvador and where Decumanus corresponds to Calle de los Caballeros.

The Roman army commander and politician, Pompey the Great, nearly leveled Valentia with the earth in 75 BC. This was due to the city’s loyalty to Pompey’s rival Sertorius. After a few decades, Valentia was rebuilt and in the following century the city grew sharply after great immigration from Italy.

In the twentieth century, Valentia experienced downturns that were replaced by new flourishing as an early Christian city that emerged in the last period of the Roman Empire from the 300s.

Visigoths and Byzantines

With the fall of the Roman Empire, a vacuum of power arose, causing many peoples to conquer new lands. Various people like vandals and visigotes were among those who came to the Valentia area.

The power of the Church increased rapidly and significantly, and it built churches as replacements for the former Roman temples. Politically, the Byzantines conquered Valentia and part of the Iberian Peninsula in 554, and the strategic importance of the city increased after that event.

In 625 the Byzantines were again thrown out of Valentia, and the Visigoths fortified the city and stationed several soldiers in the city who had not lost their regional importance despite the Byzantine exit.

Muslim invasion

In 714, Valentia surrendered without a fight to the invading Muslim Arabs and Berbers, better known as the Moors, occupied large parts of the Iberian Peninsula.

The Muslims changed the city’s cathedral into a mosque, and the first emir of Cordoba also ordered Valentia destroyed. It was in the year 755, but the son of the emir, who had some autonomy over the area, later allowed the palace of Russafa to erect on the outskirts of the city. He thereby invested in the city, which today has a neighborhood named after the palace; Ruzafa.

The former Roman province of Valentia was called Medina al-Turab or became Balansiyya. The city came from the 9th century to flourish through a rapidly rising trade in silk, paper and leather.

From the 11th century, the entire Muslim leadership of Al-Andalus collapsed and a number of smaller regions with local governments emerged instead. The same was true of Valencia, which became its own kingdom and flourished anew.

In 1092, Castilian nobleman Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, who was also called El Cid, initiated a siege of Valencia, which he entered in 1094. El Cid reinstated Christian faith and changed nine mosques to churches. El Cid was killed in 1099 in battle for the city during a Muslim siege. In 1102, the Muslims won over Valencia and again introduced Muslim faith.

It came to a new attempt at Christian re-enactment of Valencia a few years later, but the Christian forces could not keep the city, and the city remained in Muslim hands for over a hundred years.

Christian Reconstruction

The so-called reconquista, which was the Christian re-enactment of the Iberian Peninsula, also came to Valencia. It happened in 1238, when King Jaume I of Aragon besieged the city, which surrendered on September 28.

The king himself entered the city on October 9, expelling 50,000 Muslim Moors. Valencia was then divided between those who had contributed to the recapture, and it was the starting point for what Valencia can experience today; among other things with the development of the Valencian language.

Jaume I reopened the city’s former main mosque as a church with a great service, and he let the city become part of the Kingdom of Valencia, which in turn was part of the Kingdom of Aragon. The citizens of the city, which consisted of Christians, Jews and remaining Muslims, were all allowed to remain as citizens of the kingdom.

Troubled times

From the 1300s, it became a difficult time for Valencia and its citizens. In 1348, the plague hit, and it killed some of its inhabitants. Later, a series of wars broke out, creating turbulent times.

Among other things, it revolted against the Valencian king, and a fight was also fought against the Castile. A fortified city wall was erected in a hurry, working against Castilian attacks in 1363 and 1364.

Civil war-like conditions also erupted within the city walls. Christians, Jews and Muslims lived separately in their respective neighborhoods, and in 1391 the enterprising Jewish neighborhood was attacked. The result was almost the annihilation of the Jewish community in the city, and most of the remaining Jews converted to Christianity.

The golden age of Valencia

By the 1400s, Valencia’s problems were replaced by good times and increasing importance. The period became the Valencian golden age, when the city’s economy boomed and where art and culture flourished in line with the city’s rising revenue.

Valencia’s population increased, making the city the largest in the Kingdom of Aragon. The local textile industry was the economic locomotive, and a well-functioning banking system was established which, for example, borrowed money to finance Queen Isabella I of Castille’s Columbus expedition to America in 1492.

In the late 1400s, the city’s silk exchange, Llotja de la Seda, was listed as the city’s economic center, and the institution attracted merchants from all over Europe.

It was also in Valencia that the first printing machine in the Iberian Peninsula was put into operation; it happened in 1473. Around the year 1500 the university of the city was founded, and in the 1400-1500s leading artists came to the city to work. These were good times for the city, but Castille’s time stood for Columbus’ European rediscovery of America.

Decline in trade

With new colonies in America, the European economy and trade shifted from a concentration in the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and this became of great importance to Valencia.

The new Spanish colonies were Castillas, and thus Valencia did not benefit from the economic progress experienced by Madrid, for example. The Atlantic trade was not even allowed for Valencia, and the same was true for Catalonia, Aragon and Mallorca.

The time under the Spanish Empire was a time with a local government subject to the Habsburg kings. The government was repeatedly challenged as a consequence of not least Valencia’s economic downturn.

In the years 1519-1523, one of the city’s craftsmen led a revolt against the Habsburg rule. The rebellion was inspired by the rule of the Italian city-states and was thus against a feudal monarchy. The rebellion was severely beaten and hundreds of executions of rebels were executed. It is believed that the queen signed many of the death sentences.

The economic downturn continued in the 1600s, when Jews and descendants of the Muslim Moors were forced to leave the Spanish kingdom. A large part of the African and Arab population was at that time gathered in Aragon and especially in Valencia, where they made up about a third of the population.

The Arabs and Africans most often returned to North Africa, where they originally came from to the Iberian Peninsula. It left a nobility with large soils that lacked labor in the fields, which weakened the production and economy of the area over a long period.

18th-century Bourbons

Valencia’s low point occurred at the beginning of the 1700s, when the Spanish War of Succession raged from 1701 to 1714. The war ended the Valencia status as a kingdom with a formally political and legal independence.

Valencia supported the Emperor of Austria during the war, and in 1706 some English cavalrymen rode into Valencia after tricking the Spanish bourbon army into a retreat. The English held Valencia for 16 months despite several attacks on the city.

The Spanish bourbon army won in 1707 at the Battle of Almansa, and then the English evacuated Valencia. As a punishment for supporting Austria, the bourbons punished Valencia by depriving the city of its privileges and instituting a Castilian pattern. The bourbons also moved the region’s capital from Valencia to Orihuela.

Valencia’s lack of status as a capital caused the citizens to revolt. Orihuela had besieged and plundered Valencia during the Spanish Succession War, and the Cardinal, the Viceroy of the bourbon in the area, would resign unless Valencia became the capital again. After this, King Philip again changed the status of Valencia to become the capital again.

The city government in Valencia had also changed with the Castilian rules. Instead of local officials elected in Valencia, the Madrid court appointed those in charge of the city. It was often aristocrats who did not come from Valencia.

As the 18th century passed, Valencia’s economy improved through a larger trade and a production of ceramics and woven silk. The latter half of the century thus became the period of most development under the bourbon. The Palau de Justicia Courthouse is a beautiful example of one of the buildings erected during these years.

Napoleonic era

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France, and his politics influenced large parts of Europe, as did Spain and Valencia.

In the years 1807-1814 there was war between Napoleon’s France and the Spanish bourbons, which were supported by England and Portugal. However, the war began with both French and Spanish armies invading Portugal as allies. In 1808, France turned to Spain.

That same year, the Valencian people revolted against the French, storming the citadel of the city. French Marshal Moncey then attacked the city with 9,000 soldiers, but had to give up the conquest after two attacks. He withdrew his forces to Madrid, and only in 1811 a new siege began.

The siege began in October 1811, and after violent bombings, Valencia surrendered in January 1812. In mid-1812, Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, made Valencia the Spanish capital, moving his court there.

After the French defeat in 1813 during the Battle of Vitoria, Marshal Suchet withdrew the French troops from Valencia, where the French rule ended in July 1813.

During the Napoleonic era, a Spanish government of exile had adopted a Spanish constitution in 1812, which severely limited the power of the monarch. After Napoleon’s time, Ferdinand VII became king, but he did not recognize the constitution. The king reduced his seat in Valencia instead of Madrid, and on April 17, 1814, General Francisco Javier de Elío offered the king unequal power by offering obedience to his troops. In doing so, the power of the royal power was restored, and the monarchy lasted until 1820.

19th century growth

The first half of the 19th century was politically turbulent for Spain and Valencia, where a revolutionary environment thrived. However, the situation changed to more stability and economic development under Isabella II’s rule, which started in 1843.

In the mid-1800s, many large projects were invested. This included a municipal water supply, paving many streets and distribution of gas. Gas lamps were installed and new port facilities were also erected. However, the City Council lacks ongoing funds, which delayed some of the projects that were completed.

Valencia at that time was still limited by the old city walls that encircled the medieval city center. In 1858, architects presented the first plans to develop the city with the demolition of the walls, but it did not materialize at that time.

By 1860, the town had close to 140,000 inhabitants living close by, and it was a growing city. The great expansion became possible in 1866, when virtually all parts of the city walls were torn down. The expansion was initiated, and at the same time new crops created economic progress for the landowners around the city.

Valencia received electricity in 1882, which was also a time when the city was undergoing a regional renaissance with local traditions and a revival of the local, Valencian language. Valencian, along with other local languages, had been banned from the board of Madrid.

The new century

The 20th century was a century when Valencia’s growth continued, but there were both ups and downs over the years. The population has more than tripled from 213,000 in 1900 to 739,000 in 2000, and this was of course something that left its mark on urban development.

After Madrid and Barcelona, ​​the city was the largest in the country with both population and economic sense. This can be seen in the street scene where Banco de Valencia was established in 1900 and where the city’s two major market halls were erected in the following decades.

Valencian modernism marked the architecture of the time with, for example, Mercat Colón and the city’s new main train station, Estació del Nord, which opened in 1921. A large regional exhibition was held in 1909, and it was inspired by the great world exhibitions of the time.

Valencia was an industrial city where wood, metal and food were some of the products that had replaced silk and textiles as the city’s leading commodities. Wines and citrus fruits had become major export goods, bringing money to the city.

Wars and politics

The large and lucrative exports from Valencia stopped with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and the following decades were marked by changing governments, governance and wars in Spain.

Primo de Rivera introduced a new regime in 1923 and in 1931 the Second Spanish Republic was established. It lasted until 1939, when the end of the Spanish Civil War resulted in Francisco Franco’s takeover of power; a power he maintained until his death in 1975.

In 1936, the civil war had broken out, but the military uprising had not succeeded in Valencia, which became the capital of the republic instead of Madrid. As a result, the city was exposed to several bombings by, among other things, an Italian warship that blocked Valencia’s important port.

Throughout the Civil War, the city was exposed to 442 bombings, which cost 2,831 people their lives. On October 31, 1937, the Republican government moved the capital to Barcelona, ​​and Franco’s advancing troops caused Valencia to surrender on March 30, 1939.

Francisco Franco’s rule banned Valencian, which in turn did not have to be spoken or taught. It was also a time of tough economic conditions for the city, before a later economic boom saw new growth in Spain.

Turia’s floods

Looking at a map of Valencia today, the city gleams on the river, missing in its visible run north around the Old Town. This has not always been the case, for the Turia River flowed here until the latter half of the 20th century, when it was redrawn after causing great destruction.

Turia had many times gone over its banks. This happened in 1949 and again in 1957, when 81 people lost their lives due to flooding in parts of the city. After the 1957 disaster, Turia was rescheduled and its new race can now be seen south of the city center.

1960s to today

Valencia’s economy, together with the Spanish, experienced a significant recovery from the 1960s. Large public projects and infrastructure created many new jobs, and the population increased significantly in these years.

Progress continued, and after the transition to democracy in 1975, the old Valencian kingdom was re-established as a regional political entity with Valencia as its capital and some autonomy.

On February 23, an attempt at a coup d’état in Spain erupted with a storm on the Spanish parliament. The coup was canceled the following day, but the regional military leader had sent tanks on the streets of Valencia, declaring the state of emergency. He supported the coup and had to surrender at 5am on February 24th.

Since the 1980s, Valencia has experienced a great cultural boom with many new museums and cultural institutions. The best known is probably the City of Arts and Sciences / Ciutat de les Arts in les Ciències, which is built on a part of the Turia River’s former river bottom. This city, which was architecturally created by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, has put Valencia on the world map for many tourists.

In 1988, Valencia’s infrastructure was improved with the opening of the first parts of the city’s modern light rail and tram system, Metrovalencia. The system acts as a large tram network running in tunnels below the city center. Metrovalencia’s network has since then been expanded several times.

Valencia has hosted several major events over the past decades. In 1982, Estadi de Mestalla was one of the arenas used for the World Cups, and in 2003 Valencia was chosen as host of the America’s Cup races in 2007. It happened to be the first European city.