Xàtiva: a Castle in the Air
In April 2023 the Star Wars spin-off ‘Andor’ used Xàtiva castle to shoot some scenes for the second season. Valencia’s City of Arts and…
The First Hospital for the Mentally Ill in Europe?
In Valencia there is a street called Calle Hospital, although there isn’t one (a hospital I mean) and from there you can see a…
Valencia: the Cradle of Feminism
In this harsh, unharmonious age, men and women often make cruel, malicious jokes about each other; for example, a woman needs a man like…
Valencia’s Quietest Cemetery
Most major cities face the same worrying problem, and Valencia is no exception; what on Earth do you do with the corpses after you…
The Valencian Napoleonic Society
In the year 2002 Joaquin Blasco strolled across the battlefield of Waterloo. Unlike Napoleon, he didn’t meet his nemesis, but he did meet a…
Valencia Ends Executions of Transexuals
I imagine that most people, when shopping among the colourful sights and enticing aromas of the Central Market, are blissful unaware that they are…
Peanuts and Puzol
When you drive into Puzol, a village situated to the north of Valencia, from the coastal motorway (south exit), the first thing that strikes…
America’s First Letter was Sent to a Valencian
The first setter ever sent from America was a long time being delivered. The truth is, it was carried most of the way, across…
Isabel of Villena
Not many people like being called a bastard, and not many people have schools, streets and libraries named after them, and yet Isabel de…
Did Somebody Whisper “Cholera”?
There are lots of interesting things to learn in Valencia or in any city if you walk around looking above street level. One thing…
Valencia: Where the Streets Have a Name: Calle de Martí
Really, they should have named a fountain after Francisco José Buenaventura de Paula Martí y Mora; he is after all accredited as being the…
Where the Streets Have a Name: Ramón y Cajál
Most Spanish cities have a street with this name, although not many have chosen as unexciting an avenue as Valencia. In fact most people…