The 1928 domes
Ceramic, stained glass and iron — modernisme's food cathedral.
Sjaak Kempe from Groningen, The Netherlands — CC BY 2.0 · FriedrichFrisch — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bybbisch94, Christian Gebhardt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bybbisch94, Christian Gebhardt — CC BY-SA 4.0
Valencia's Central Market is near-inarguably Europe's most beautiful food market building: a 1928 modernista palace of ceramic domes, stained glass, slender iron and eight thousand metres of light — a genuine cathedral of food where some three hundred stallholders work every morning. This is the locals' market before the tourists': the famous Valencian huerta vegetables, orange mountains as the city's emblem, Mediterranean fish, rice in the varieties of paella's homeland, spices, nuts and sweets — at true prices under authentic vendors' cries. The golden rule: mornings only (closing at three, shut Sundays), a fresh orange juice in hand the unwritten entry condition. Facing it: the UNESCO Silk Lonja and the Santos Juanes church — old Valencia's golden triangle within fifty metres.
Ceramic, stained glass and iron — modernisme's food cathedral.
Valencia's emblem heaped high — the juice its entry rite.
The rice country's varieties at their source.
Plaça de la Ciutat de Bruges, 46001 Valencia
La Lonja de la SedaThe Silk Lonja is Valencia's UNESCO jewel: the merchants' exchange of the fiftee1 minute walk4.7
Church of San NicolásA church in the old centre of Valencia known locally as the Valencian Sistine Ch4 minutes walk4.8
Plaza de la ReinaThe main square in front of Valencia cathedral in the heart of the old city, and4 minutes walk4.8
Silk MuseumA museum in the hall of Valencia's silk weavers' guild, a fifteenth-century buil4 minutes walk4.1
L'Iber Toy Soldier MuseumA museum of toy soldiers and military miniatures in the Palacio de Malferit in t5 minutes walk4.6Deliberately less — it stayed a shopping market first, which is its virtue: few counters inside, the plates around it in the square's cafés. For easy halal grazing: fruit, juices, nuts, cheese and olives are whole worlds — Mediterranean fish cooked in the neighbouring restaurants.