Visiting Valencia, Spain: Top Sights on Foot

The best things to do in Valencia range from Gothic landmarks and historic markets to museums, gardens, and the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences. Valencia brings together Roman foundations, medieval trading wealth, Valencian Modernisme, Mediterranean traditions, and contemporary architecture in a city that is easy to explore on foot. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Valencia with 188 narrated places.

What to See in Valencia’s Historic Center

La Lonja de la Seda

Facing the Central Market and the Church of Sant Joan del Mercat, La Lonja de la Seda — the Silk Exchange — is one of Valencia’s principal attractions. Built between 1482 and 1548, it is a masterpiece of late Valencian Gothic civil architecture and a symbol of the city’s prosperous fifteenth-century golden age.

Its design began with Francesc Baldomar around 1470. After his death, Joan Ivarra and Pere Compte completed the building according to his plans. The surviving documents emphasize that the two worked as equals, with neither master subordinate to the other.

Central Market and the Church of Sant Joan del Mercat

The Central Market stands directly opposite La Lonja de la Seda, making the pair a natural stop in the historic center. Its food stalls connect Valencia’s commercial heritage with everyday city life, while the nearby Church of Sant Joan del Mercat adds another historic landmark to the square.

The market and the Silk Exchange are also examples of Valencia’s distinctive architectural language. Along with North Railway Station, the Central Market displays decorative tilework and organic details associated with Valencian Modernisme.

Valencia Cathedral

Valencia Cathedral, known locally as la Seu, rises in the heart of the old city. It was built on the site of a mosque, which had itself replaced the city’s former Visigothic cathedral, and was consecrated in 1238 in dedication to Saint Mary at the wish of James the Conqueror.

Valencian Gothic dominates the building, but later additions introduced Romanesque, French Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical elements. One chapel holds the Holy Chalice, a first-century cup that many believe to be the true Holy Grail. King Alfonso the Magnanimous gave it to the cathedral.

Monestir de Sant Miquel dels Reis

On Valencia’s northern edge, in the Orriols district, the Monestir de Sant Miquel dels Reis now houses the Biblioteca Valenciana. Fernando de Aragón, Duke of Calabria, founded it in 1545 for the Hieronymite order, on the site of an earlier Cistercian monastery.

Its affiliation and commemorative role have led some scholars to describe it as a forerunner of El Escorial. The monastery offers a different perspective on Valencia’s architectural history, away from the busiest streets of the old town.

Museu de la Ciutat de València

The Museu de la Ciutat de València occupies the Palau del Marqués de Campo, also known as the Palace of the Counts of Berbedel. The building combines seventeenth-century origins with a nineteenth-century transformation.

A rectangular arcaded courtyard leads to a grand staircase beneath a small cupola. Rooms including the former Ballroom and Salón Imperio now serve as exhibition spaces, following a careful restoration completed in 1989.

Banys de l’Almirall

In the Xerea quarter, the Banys de l’Almirall occupies an unassuming building near the old Palace of the Almirantes de Aragón. Inside is one of the last working Arab-style bathhouses in Spain.

Its hammam layout moves from a vestibule to cold, temperate, and hot rooms, following a tradition descended from Roman baths and adapted under Muslim rule. Although these baths were built after the Christian reconquest, probably for Pere de Vilarasa, they follow an Islamic model and are considered a rare example of Mudéjar architecture. They remained in continuous use until 1959 and reopened to visitors in 2005 after restoration.

Escalante Centre Teatral and the theatres of Carrer dels Cavallers

Carrer dels Cavallers brings together several stages in historic buildings. The Escalante Centre Teatral was created in 1985 to introduce children to theatre. Its original home was a late-Renaissance palace whose courtyard once served as a carriage entrance and whose stalls were formerly stables.

The theatre eventually left the building in 2016 because of structural problems, but continues its work elsewhere in the city. Nearby, L’Iber occupies a late-fourteenth- or early-fifteenth-century manor house and contains a museum of miniature lead soldiers. The Teatre Talià, at number 31, completes this unusual group of historic performance spaces.

Museums and Cultural Places in Valencia

Museu de Belles Arts de València

The Museu de Belles Arts de València is housed in the Palace of St Pius V. Founded in 1913, it is the most important art gallery in Valencia and the Valencian Community, as well as one of the earliest museums of its kind in Spain.

L’ETNO, Valencian Museum of Ethnology

At the Centre Cultural de la Beneficència, the Valencian Museum of Ethnology — rebranded L’ETNO after a renovation in 2020 — explores traditional Valencian culture alongside Mediterranean and world traditions. Created in 1982 and opened to the public the following year, it is the region’s reference museum for traditional culture.

Institut Valencià d’Art Modern

The Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, or IVAM, opened in 1989 as Spain’s first center dedicated to modern art. It remains the region’s leading museum for twentieth- and twenty-first-century art.

Capella de l’Antic Col·legi de Sant Pau

Inside what is now the Instituto Lluís Vives, on Calle Xàtiva, the Capella de l’Antic Col·legi de Sant Pau belongs to the first Jesuit college built in Spain. Saint Ignatius of Loyola authorized the college in 1562 at the request of the Valencian canon Juan Jerónimo Domenech.

The surviving complex includes the old cloister, with round arches resting on Tuscan columns, and a chapel with six side chapels between its buttresses. The cloister also appeared in one of Joaquín Sorolla’s scenes of Valencia, known as El patio del instituto.

Palau de l’Exposició

The Palau de l’Exposició, on Carrer de Galícia, was built in 1908 by Francesc Mora i Berenguer. Its design combines Valencian Modernisme with neo-Gothic details.

Bombas Gens

Bombas Gens brings contemporary art into a former industrial setting. The art centre opened in July 2017 inside the former Bombas Hidráulicas Carlos Gens hydraulic pump factory, giving the building a new cultural role.

Casa-Museo de Blasco Ibáñez

At the edge of Malvarrosa beach, the Casa-Museo de Blasco Ibáñez occupies the rebuilt home of writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, also known as the Chalet de Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. The original building was confiscated after the Civil War and later abandoned. Because it had become severely ruinous, it was demolished in the 1990s and rebuilt from the original plans.

Turia Gardens and the City of Arts and Sciences

Turia Gardens

The Turia Gardens occupy the former riverbed of the Turia. The river was diverted after the catastrophic flood of 1957, leaving a long green corridor through the city.

The gardens connect Valencia’s historic center with the City of Arts and Sciences. They form a natural route between medieval monuments, museums, bridges, and the city’s most recognizable modern architecture.

City of Arts and Sciences

At the end of the former Turia riverbed, the City of Arts and Sciences has become Valencia’s biggest draw for visitors, ahead of the historic old town. Santiago Calatrava designed the complex, with Félix Candela contributing to some of its buildings. Its curving white forms have become the city’s modern architectural signature.

The complex was built in stages during the 1990s and early 2000s. L’Hemisfèric opened in 1998, the Palau de les Arts opera house followed on 9 October 2005, and L’Àgora opened in 2009.

Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe

Part of the City of Arts and Sciences, the Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe occupies a building designed by Santiago Calatrava to resemble a whale’s skeleton. Construction began around 1994, and the museum opened to the public in November 2000 after its symbolic inauguration by the future King Felipe VI in March of that year.

The building has hosted science and technology events, including the Campus Party technology gathering and astronautics congresses. It was also used for the 2007 presentation of the McLaren Formula One team and appeared in scenes from the 2015 film Tomorrowland.

Explore Valencia with Neywo

A Valencia self-guided walking tour lets you explore the city without joining a group or following a fixed timetable. Neywo has seven walking tours, one bus route, and one bike route in Valencia, with routes ranging from 1.24 to 5.9 km and from 20 to 106 minutes. Together, they include the city’s historic center, Turia Gardens, the City of Arts and Sciences, museums, theatres, churches, palaces, and markets.

The walks include routes through the Silk Exchange and Central Market, Valencia Cathedral and the Holy Grail, the former riverbed, El Carme, the city’s central square, Gothic La Xerea, and the City of Arts and Sciences. The C1 bus route covers the old town loop, while the bike route follows the Turia Gardens from the medieval gate to the City of Arts.

Download Neywo and explore Valencia with its free audio guide. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages, and the guide includes 188 narrated places across the city.

Valencia is part of the Valencian Community in Spain, a region also home to Sagunto, Xàbia, and Alicante.