Going Underground: L’Almoina Museum
Valencia is an old city; some would say ancient. It was founded by the Roman consul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus in 138 BC, and called Valentia Edetanorum.
Since then civilisations have come and gone and built upon the stones of previous inhabitants.
Little remains of Roman Valencia, but a visit to L’Almoina museum, located just behind the cathedral, can give a glimpse of what used to be.
In 1985, after the Catholic church had bought the land to extend the Basilica, the remains were found and the foundations of the museum didn’t need to be laid, so to speak.
I had always found the entrance a bit ugly and consequently didn’t venture inside for many years until the Day of the Museums offered free entrance and I could resist no longer.
The result was surprising and gratifying, as the ruins extend further than I had thought, 2,500 square metres all told, and are tastefully illuminated, as if they were a movie set, which perhaps one day they will be.
As well as Roman remains (both Republican and Imperial) there is a dash of Visigoth and a soupcon of Arab architecture.
The word ‘almoina’ in Valenciano actually describes the money given to a beggar, and in medieval times the building on the current site was in fact a medieval soup kitchen.
When the excavations concluded in 2005, a pool was placed over the ruins so that they could be seen through the water.
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