Valencia in the antiquity (138 B.C. - 718 A.D.)

The city of Valencia was founded by the Romans in 138 B.C. by Junus Brutus and populated by italic pedantic soldiers. The name of Valentia was meaning "fortress, good augury ".

The city was located in a small island in the middle of the river Turia and its structure was similar to other Roman cities of the epoch. Its principal routes were two perpendicular streets, the kardo, which was crossing it from north to south and the decumano, which was doing it from this one to west, in the confluence of these two routes was the forum.

The life of Valencia was passing calm, until the civil war exploded between Sila and Mario and in 75 B.C. the city was devastated by Pompeyo. After the destruction it seems that the city remained left for 50 years, since there does not exist information written until the following century. About 20-15 B.C. the city returned to populate in the epoch of the emperor Octavio. Towards the ends of the III^rd century, there takes place a political crisis, that diminishes the civil activity, while begins to bloom a new phenomenon, the Christianity.

The most relevant figure of this new doctrine in Valencia was that of San Vicente Martyr, deacon of Caesaraugusta's Diocese (Saragossa), who came to Valencia to promote the Christianity in this city. It was condemned to death and tortured at the beginning of the IV^th century. His body was thrown to the sea and gathered by some of those first Christians, it is believed, that they deposited his remains in the zone of the Roqueta, at the edge of the August route, where a temple would be constructed in his honour.  

Moslem epoch (718 - 1238)

The Valencia that the Muslims found was a decadent city, the population was reducing its extension, though it was preserving to big features, its original tracing. The city was devastated by Abd al-Raman I in 778-779, for having taken part in a revolt.

Abd al-Allah, son of Abd al-Raman, during his government did improvements in the city without changing its urban development form with the exception of which he constructed to the suburbs of the city an estate of playtime called the Russafa to similarity of the Russafas Persian (gardens), name that has come until our days. In that epoch the city had happened to be been called Balansiya, name that ensued from the evolution of the Latin name Valentia. The written and archaeological sources of this epoch are very small, of what the scanty relevancy of the city is deduced in this moment.

In 1011 Mubarak and Muzaffar get powerful by the power of the Gang of Valencia and, by force of taxes, they managed to do reforms and urban development improvements, but in the year 1021, after a popular revolt, there promoted to the throne Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Amir (grandson of Almanzor) with whom the city lived through a stage of brilliance. There excelled itself the geographical Roman expansion for the demographic development and a few new walls were constructed, turning this way, to the city, in the Al-Andalus' strongest seat.

After the death of Abd' al-Aziz in 1061, followed a period of instability, propitiating the conquest of Valencia by El Cid, in the year 1094 until, eight years later, the pressure of the Almorávides forced Alfonso VI to evacuate the city, inflaming it in his  retreat. This way, Valencia passed to form a part of the Almoravide Empire, until the Berbers of the zone of the Atlas, called Almohades, in 1145, replaced them in the government. In the year 1238, after five months of siege, the city was conquered by Jaime I. This supposed the abandon of the city by the Moslem population and allowed the accession of Christian families, proceeding from the north, which realized big changes in the society, contributing their customs and forms of life, to a city that traditionally had coexisted for centuries with three monotheistic religions and their traditions.

The repopulation of the city (1238)

During its repopulation the city was divided in districts according to the origin of the resettlers, mainly Aragoneses and Catalans. The process of repopulation was slow and constant during the whole XIV^th century. The Moors who remained in the city were established outside, in what in that epoch it was known as " The Moorish quarter ", nevertheless, inside the wall there existed another district, this one, also walled, known as " the Jewry " or "Call", district donated by Jaime I, in order that there were living the Jews who in the main were devoting themselves to the gold work.

In that time, the jurisdictions were implanted, there was written the " Llibre del Consolat del Mar ", the most ancient code of written Maritime law; the judicial power was exercised by " El Justicia " and another important figure in the daily life of the city was " El Mostassaf ", which was monitoring the market, the weight, measurements, prices and transactions. With the Christianisation of the city, the former mosques turned into churches, the Great Mosque into cathedral, under the dedication of Santa Maria. In the year 1262 on the Great Mosque area the construction of the cathedral is begun on order of the Cister.

In the XIII^th century, to facilitate the access to the suburbs of the city placed in the north area of the river, two bridges of stone were constructed, " dels catalans " (or of the Trinidad) and that of the “Real”  (Royal) one. In this zone, of new urbanization, Jaime II constructed a Royal Palace, which was plundered by Peter the Cruel in 1364, when he attacked Valencia for the second time. And for having resisted to both assaults, Valencia received the title of "city twice loyal" and reasons for which two crowned "L" flanks the shield of the city.

The Gothic Valencia

At the end of the XIV^th century was constructed in the new wall that was surrounding the city the "Porta del Serrans ". In this epoch Valencia enjoyed a great urban development and public hygiene, the net of sewer being extended. In 1390 the Jewry or "Call" had to be extended because of the growth of the Semitic population. The people of the city did not see with good eyes this amplification and in 1391 it was plundered dying a hundred of Jews, which stayed sheltered in the Synagogue and terrified they asked to be baptized. After these facts the surface of the Jewry diminished and its baptized inhabitants joined fully the Christian life.

The fights between lineages were very common in this epoch and in Valencia the cruellest they were between the Centelles and Soler families, initiated by small incidents and that worsened with Lluis de Soler and Pere de Centelles' deaths. In the year 1409 the father Jofré seeing that for the streets the kids were stoning to the madmen, he constructed a mental hospital, next to the " Portal de Torrent ", where to be able to hospitalise them, being the first mental hospital of the world.

Then arrived the year 1410 when the king Martin I died without leaving descent, both the family Centelles and the aristocracy and the Aragonese belong partial to Fernando of Antequera, whereas the Vilaraguts, the Jurors of the city and the middle class were supporting the candidacy proposed by the Catalans of the Count of Urgel. Not coming near to any agreement a violent civil war exploded, to the end the representatives of Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia and Majorca met in Caspe for the election of a new king. The Valencian representatives were San Vicente Ferrer, his brother Bonifacio Ferrer and the jurist Giner Rabasa, latter replaced with Pere Bertrán. 6 votes were decided by majority to 3 and Fernando of Antequera was designated king of the Kingdom of Aragon, introducing this way in the life of the city the dynasty of the Trastámara in 1412.

The brilliance of the city

During the XV^th, Valencia lives through a great demographic, economic and cultural brilliance, to half of the century, it was relying on a population of 75.000 inhabitants, turning Valencia into the Christian city the more important of the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1419 the king Alfonso the Magnanimous founded the "File of the Kingdom of Valencia" and the economic power of the city inside the Mediterranean was comparable to that of Venice, Genoa and Marseilles. In this century one achieved constructing the tower del Miguelete, the cathedral was expanded, of the Valencian’s diocese were two bishops members of the Borja’s family, Alfonso de Borja and Roderic de Borja that were later the Popes Calixto III and Alexander VI, there were constructed the Torres de Quart, the Lonja de la Seda, the Palace of the Regional Government and the Dockyards of the Grau. In the world of the letters were standing out Jordi de San Jordi, Ausias March, Joan Rois de Corella, Joanot Martorell and Isabel de Villena.

In 1456 after an assault to the Moorish quarter, the district was closed for not allowing it anymore, provoking the abandon of the Spanish Muslims living under Christian rule of the city. The Catholics Kings travelled to Valencia for the first time in 1481, and the city gave them an ostentatious reception. In this epoch Fernando's authoritarianism combined with the frequency of the epidemics provoked an increasing and dangerous social tension. The prosperity of Valencia was still notable and the Valencian capitalist Lluis de Santángel gave money to the Catholics Kings to finance the trip of Christopher Colombus.

In spite of the out-standing brilliance of the city during the whole century at the end of this one, the unions were threatened by the capitalism and the depersonalization of the human relations, the proletariat was composed by Moors who detested the plebeian Valencian ones, the social crisis could explode in any moment. In 1517 Valencia suffers a terrible flood of the river Turia, in 1519 the pest returns to throb to the city and already in 1520 the “Germanias” of the unions are constituted in weapon, due to an incident without importance. The term of the “Germanias” in 1521 with the victory of the aristocracy, indicated in Valencia the end of the Middle Ages.

The Valencia of the Renaissance

The repression and the punishment of the "agermanats" by the queen Germana de Foix, widow of Fernando the Catholic and vice-queen of Valencia for her step-son Carlos I, was very bloody; they were many those who died in the gallows and it got longer for enough years, in 1542 they had not ended the confiscations of the goods to the "agermanats".

The crisis of the “Germania” provoked the rural exodus of the Valencian nobility to the capital of the Kingdom around the court of the vice-queen. This Renaissance court was happy and cultivated, of etiquette and comity, with gallant adventures and duels, discreet pleasures and artistic parties. With the raise to the throne of Philip II, the former cities - states were replaced with the great territorial state. The Valencian aristocracy did not want to surrender yet to the civil laws and they were supporting their habit of dissolving their disputes with bloody fights between gangs and when the death of the Duke of Calabria happened, third husband of the queen Germana, Valencia remained definitively without court.

The Valencian buildings begin to present Italian elements in the decoration but still they were in the habit of presenting Gothic structures. The abundance of monuments was giving a great prestige to the city, which beauty the whole world was praising. Valencia was submitted either to any urban arrangement of set neither to the geometric rigor and there preserved its low - medieval configuration of Moslem ancestry.

In 1599 the king Philip III celebrates in Valencia his weddings with Margaret of Austria. The city assuming the expenses of the Royal wedding, this added to the lack of wheat and other lacks produced the economic penury of the Municipality, provoking the hunger in the people, while the aristocracy was increasingly powerful. The XVI^th century concluded with the expulsion of the Moriscos decreed by Philip III, in spite of the fact that the craftsmen and peasants of this culture were very useful and necessary in the country.

From the Austrians to the Bourbons

The depopulation due to the expulsion of the Moriscos did not influence too much the city of Valencia since the majority of them were living in the field and in small centres of population, but if there arose a financial complication produced by this expulsion, since the Moriscos changed into gold and jewels all the coins obtained by the sales of the goods, even the false ones that they themselves had coined and this provoked the stock exchange fall of the Taula de Canvis of Valencia. The middle class was ruined.

With the set up back of the government of the city began to return of the middle class; many trees reached the shore of the river; the works of the fish market are ended and one installed a fountain with spout on the market; in 1675 in the place of the Moorish quarter one installed the House of the Mercy and the textile industry was renewed by the adoption of Flemish and Italian technologies. In 1704 the Father Tosca delineated the plane of the city, which turns into the first one done closely and into that there differ the ancient and most modern slums.

In 1700 Charles II died without children and left writing in his testament that his inheritor will be Philip of Bourbon, grandson of Louis XIV, whereas the Austrian emperor Leopold nominates his son a king of Spain, whose archduke Charles of Austria the Valencian ones were partial. But On April 25, 1707 the supporters of the archduke were defeated in the Battle of Almansa and the Jurors of Valencia reminded the surrender. On June 29, Philip V was decreeing the abolition of the Valencian Jurisdictions.

The Valencia of the Illustration

With the reign of Philip V there was restored the Decree of New Plan as which the king had the free faculty to impose taxes. When in 1724, Philip V, resigned the crown in favour of his son Luis I, he did it in Valencia and during the reign of this one, the Valencian nobility also was a victim of the air unifier and depersonalization; the distinction was annulled between barons, gentlemen, etc, categories that were unified in one, compared to that of nobleman. The taste of the nobility and the Valencian middle class Europeanize itself and gallicize with which they were established numerous foreign merchants in Valencia, the most numerous were the French.

In 1769 the ministers of Carlos III divided the city in districts and its region in four areas: Campanar, Benimaclet, Ruzafa and Patraix and the mayors of neighborhood were created, giving to the people a major participation in the municipal government;  there was created the corps of night watchmen who received the name of "serenos" and this corps was imitated in all the Spanish cities. Between 1761 and 1780, Carlos III, made construct for Montesa's military order the building of the Temple and between 1758 and 1802 the building of the Customs that in 1828 was destined to factory of tobacco and in 1922 to Courthouse.

The news of the execution of Luis XVI provoked that the students of Valencia helped by the populace went to the street of the Portal Nou, inhabited by French merchants with hostile attitude and after several revolts, 648 Frenchmen were expelled from the city. The war was formalized in 1794 and in spite of the initial successes of the Spanish army, was conquered by the French revolutionaries.

War and revolution

Charles IV and Fernando VII resign his rights on the crown of Spain in favour of Joseph Bonaparte, and when this news came to Valencia it provoked manifestations of protest among the people. Vicente Domenech at the time, a "Palleter", marched towards the market, came to the house where there were sold the stamped paper enabled by the French government and taking a sheet and breaking it he said "A poor person palleter declares the war to Napoleon. Long live to Fernando VII and death to the traitors". On the following day the populace rebelling, it assaulted and took the citadel as the weapon; on May 25 there was constituted the "Supreme Meeting of Government of the Kingdom of Valencia ", the revolution had triumphed.

After submitting the Principality of Catalonia, the marshall Suchet prepares formally the assault to the Kingdom of Valencia. During the French occupation in the city changes take are produced, in the lot of the Royal Palace they begin the works of the Garden of the Fish-ponds, the almost missing Avenue was replanted and the current Summer-house was done. As consequence of the defeat of the Frenchmen in Victoria on July 5, 1813, Suchet evacuates Valencia and there is constituted a provincial government presided by the Marquess of Dos Aguas.

On April 16 Fernando VII enters Valencia where he receives the same manifestations of happiness that everywhere and on May 4 also in Valencia he signs secretly the decree that annuls the Constitution of Cadiz. The new archbishop Simó Lopez García who took charge of the Diocese in 1824 restored the Inquisition with the name of Meeting of the Faith and in 1832 the Principal Theatre was inaugurated.

Liberal against Carlists

To the death of Fernando VII in 1833, the Carlists proclaimed his brother as Carlos V, king of Spain, pushing back the future queen Isabel II. The proximity of the Carlists to the city was exasperating the spirits of the liberal ones and the night of August 5, 1835, the populace was stirred up forcing the doors of the prisons and liberating the arrested Carlists, obtaining later the abolition of the dominions and the closing of many convents. The above mentioned had important consequences in the urbanism of the city, since they were ruined diverse convents and in the lots new streets and facilities were opened. In 1839 the construction of the Plaza Redonda began in the place where before it was killing itself to the animals that were selling on the market.

On March 6, 1836 the National Militia takes Valencia and forces the General Captain to resign. Dismayed the liberal ones of the city of Valencia for the impunity of movements of the troop Carlist, claim a radicalization of the politics; led by Boïl, they pushed back the Royal Statute granted by the governing queen, who had to accept the Constitution of Cadiz of 1812 that was proclaimed in Valencia on August 10. On October 12, 1840 Maria Cristina resigns the Regency and on the 17th embarks towards Rome. On October 20 the infantas go out of Valencia, to where they had come with her mother in July of the same year, to go to Madrid, where Espartero  will take charge of the Regency.

In the year 1854 and 1855 there were two epidemics of cholera with 2.000 dead men each one, considerable number since the city had not grown from 1831 due to the civil war and the limitation of the space that supposed the wall. On March 22, 1852 the first section of railroad was inaugurated, that of Valencia to the Grau and in this stage of the century there was constructed the most important building of the Elizabethan epoch in Valencia, the bullring, that in the moment to be inaugurated the biggest and beautiful age of Spain.

Towards the whiteness of the XX^th century

An hard economic crisis in 1866 made close many workshops and shops in Valencia and in September, 1868 exploded the "Glorious " Revolution. Unlike other cities the Valencian revolutionaries did not commit violations against the religious ones and the archbishop was respected.

In September, 1871 the king Amadeo I does a brief visit to the city of Valencia, though this one is not very favorable to the monarchy Amadeista. With the fall of Pi and Margall the elevation propagates cantonalist, the Valencian Canton was proclaimed on July 22, 1873 from the house wardrobe situated opposite to the cathedral, with great enthusiasm of the people. July 26 begins the siege of the city, which resists thirteen days, but it gives up itself before the horrors and the destructions of the bombardment. In January, 1874 the general Pavía gives a coup d'état and dissolves the courts of the Republic and January 11, 1875 Alfonso XII of step lands in Valencia towards Madrid.

The demolition of the wall favors the link between the nucleus of the city and the Grau, the round of the wall turns into the surrounding of the city and the works of the Widening begin. The increase of the population in 1900 was important owed especially to the annexation of municipalities of around as Patraix, Beniferri, Benicalap, Ruzafa, etc. In the painting Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) stands out and in the sculpture Mariano Benlliure (1862-1947). Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Valencian writer throughout the world recognized was personifying the republicanism of the first half of the XXth century.

The neutrality of Spain during the I World war allowed doing big business to those that were trading with the belligerent countries. But in Valencia between 1914 and 1918 the price of the food increased 40 % and 60 % whereas the wages did not raise even 1919-20. The situation became much more serious in 1917 with the maritime blockade imposed by Germany, which supposed the agricultural collapse. The struggle of classes sharpened after 1917, there was bombs, personal attempts and counter terrorism. In September, 1923 there is implanted the Dictatorship of Cousin of Rivera. The same year Alfonso XIII and the queen Victoria Eugenia had visited Valencia to preside at the Coronation of the Virgin of the Helpless ones. Blasco Ibáñez from the exile published in 1924 a violent pamphlet against the dictator and the king.

The Central Market was done still based on stops that were dismounting to the half day, since the new building of modernist style was still in works (1910-28), also there is modernist the Market of Colon (1914) and the Railroad station of the North. In the year 1929 the Dictatorship does crisis and loses the support of the middle class, in January of the same year, a military coup fails in Valencia and in 1930 it fell the monarchy.

From the XX^th century to the XXI^st century

On April 14, 1931 the second Republic was proclaimed; In Valencia it triumphed obtaining 32 seats and Agustín Trigo was nominated as a mayor. In this year there was inaugurated the building of the cinema Capitol and one began to knock down the square of the Queen for its amplification.

In 1933, the remains of the novelist Blasco Ibáñez returned to Valencia, to be buried in the civil cemetery of the city.

On July 18, 1936 the military raising takes place against the Republic, in this moment began the Spanish Civil war and on November 6 the Government of the Republic moved to Valencia, for fear that Madrid may fall; the city filled with anti-aircraft refuges, the churches of the Santos Juanes, St Martin, San Agustín, and others were burned.

In October, 1937 the government left Valencia to go to Barcelona; the same year there died Jose Benlliure, great Valencian painter and father of the sculptor Mariano Benlliure.

On March 30, 1939 the national troops entered in Valencia and on April 1 one declared the peace. Francisco Franco is proclaimed Chief of State and takes the name of "Caudillo". Peace came accompanied from food lack, rationing cards and from the black market.

In 1943 they began the works of the new Archbishop Palace; in 1945 the first floral offering to the Virgin of Desemparados was born on the part of the commissions of the falleras.

On October 14, 1957, the city suffered the most terrible flood of its whole history and in consequence there were projected the detour of the riverbed of the river Turia externally of the city.

On November 20, 1975 the general Franco died and on December 27 of the same year Don Juan Carlos I is proclaimed a king of Spain and confirmed the provisional government that will lead to the nation towards the democracy.

On June 15, 1977 were the first democratic elections. This democratic environment propitiates the creation and approval of the Spanish Constitution of December 6, 1978 that has come until our days. Once established the bases of the new democracy begin the manifestations of the Valencians asking " Llibertat, Amnistia, Estatut d'Autonomía " and on April 29, 1982 the Statute of Autonomy is approved for the Valencian Community.

In 1987 the Palace of the Music is inaugurated, as well as the Bofill's section of the Garden of the Turia and begins to construct the building of the Valencian Radio Television. Valencia looks a XXI^st century from the City of the Arts and the Sciences, there offers us the facilities of the Hemisferic turned into a modern city who recently has constructed its Conference hall.