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Pavement of a Valencia street, with arbour. Many ordinary places in the city are designed with attention to detail, and a sense
of aesthetics.
This article is about the original city in Spain called "Valencia". For other uses
of the name, see Valencia
(disambiguation).
Valencia (Spanish: Valencia, Valencian/Catalan: València) is a medium-sized port city (the
third largest city in Spain) and industrial area on the east coast of Spain. It is the
capital of the Valencian autonomous region and of the
province of Valencia, and with over 800,000 people in the
city and more than a million in the metropolitan area it is the third largest city in Spain.
It is famous for the Las Fallas
festival in 17-19 March, for paella valenciana, and for Los Moros y Los
Cristianos. Las Fallas is a
festival where elaborate characters and scenes are costructed of carboard and filled with fireworks. The scenes are often
satrical and reflect the opinions of the creators. The structures are burned all over the city during the festival. Los Moros y Los
Cristianos, the Moors and the Christians, is a festival where men and women dress in period costumes, have parades, and
re-enact the expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1492.
Valencia has a metro system [1] , run by FGV.
Valencia has a reasonably successful football club known as Valencia
C.F.
History
Founded by the Romans in 137
BC on the site of a former Iberian town, by the river Turia. The river flooded in the 1950s killing many Valencians. The river was re-routed and the empty river bed
was converted to a park that runs through the city. The city has been occupied by the Visigoths, Moors and the Aragonese. In 1094, Rodrigo Díaz de
Vivar (El Cid) conquered Valencia, but the city returned to the Almoravids in 1102. The
king James I of Aragon reconquered the city in 1238 and incorporated it to the new formed Kingdom of Valencia.
In the 15th and 16th
centuries, Valencia was one of the major cities in the Mediterranean.
The writer Joanot Martorell, author of Tirant lo Blanch, and the poet Ausias March are famous Valencians of that era.
The first printing press in the Iberian Peninsula was located in Valencia. The first printed Bible in a romance language,
Catalan, was printed in Valencia circa 1478, attributed to Bonifaci Ferrer.
Valencian bankers loaned funds to Queen Isabella for
Columbus' trip in 1492.
War of the Germanies 1519-1522.
Expulsion of Moriscos in 1609.
During the War of the Spanish
Succession, Valencia sided with Charles of Austria. After the victory of the Bourbons at the Battle of Almansa (April
25, 1707), the city lost its privileges or furs.
After the fall of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War, the capital of the Republic was moved to Valencia. The city suffered from the blockade
and siege by Franco's forces. The postwar period was hard for Valencians. During the Franco years, speaking or teaching Valencian was prohibited; using the language at all was subject to criminal
penalties.
Valencia was granted Autonomous Statutes in 1982.
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