Valencia

Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also comprising the neighbouring municipalities has a population of around 1.6 million, constituting one of the major urban areas on the European side of the Mediterranean Sea. It is located on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula, at the Gulf of Valencia, north of the Albufera lagoon.

Valencia was founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC. Islamic rule and acculturation ensued in the 8th century, together with the introduction of new irrigation systems and crops. Aragonese Christian conquest took place in 1238, and so the city became the capital of the Kingdom of Valencia. The city's population thrived in the 15th century, owing to trade with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, Italian ports and other locations in the Mediterranean sea, becoming one of the largest European cities by the end of the century. Already harmed by the emergence of the Atlantic Ocean in detriment of the Mediterranean in the global trade networks and the insecurity created by Barbary piracy throughout the 16th century, the city's economic activity experienced a crisis upon the expulsion of the moriscos in 1609. The city became a major silk-manufacturing centre in the 18th century. The city served as accidental seat of the Spanish Government from 1936 to 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

The city's port is the 5th-busiest container port in Europe and the busiest container port on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is ranked as a Gamma-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Its historic centre is one of the largest in Spain, with approximately . Due to its long history, Valencia has numerous celebrations and traditions, such as the '' Falles'', which were declared Fiestas of National Tourist Interest of Spain in 1965 and an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in November 2016. Joan Ribó from Compromís has been the mayor of the city since 2015.

Name

The Latin name of the city was Valentia (), meaning "strength" or "valour", due to the Roman practice of recognising the valour of former Roman soldiers after a war. The Roman historian Livy explains that the founding of Valentia in the 2nd century BC was due to the settling of the Roman soldiers who fought against a Lusitanian rebel, Viriatus, during the Third Lusitanian Raid of the Lusitanian War.

During the rule of the Muslim kingdoms in Spain, it had the title ''Medina at-Tarab'' ('City of Joy') according to one transliteration, or ''Medina at-Turab'' ('City of Sands') according to another, since it was located on the banks of the River Turia. It is not clear if the term ''Balansiyya'' was reserved for the entire Taifa of Valencia or also designated the city.

By gradual sound changes, ''Valentia'' has become ''Valencia'' (i.e. before a pausa or nasal sound) or (after a continuant) in Castilian and ''València'' in Valencian. In Valencian, ''e'' with grave accent (''è'') indicates / ɛ/ in contrast to / e/, but the word ''València'' is an exception to this rule, since ''è'' is pronounced /e/. The spelling "València" was approved by the AVL based on tradition after a debate on the matter. The name "València" has been the only official name of the city since 2017.

Geography

Location

Located on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula and the western part of the Mediterranean Sea, fronting the Gulf of Valencia, Valencia lies on the highly fertile alluvial silts accumulated on the floodplain formed in the lower course of the Turia River. At its founding by the Romans, it stood on a river island in the Turia, from the sea.

The Albufera lagoon, located about south of the city proper (and part of the municipality), was originally a saltwater lagoon, but since the severing of links to the sea, it has eventually become a freshwater lagoon as well as progressively decreasing in size. The albufera and its environment are exploited for the cultivation of rice in paddy fields, and for hunting and fishing purposes.

The City Council bought the lake from the Crown of Spain for 1,072,980 pesetas in 1911, and today it forms the main portion of the ''Parc Natural de l'Albufera'' ( Albufera Nature Reserve), with a surface area of . In 1976, because of its cultural, historical, and ecological value, it was declared a natural park.

Climate

The climate of Valencia is a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen: ''Csa'') with mild winters and hot, dry summers. According to Siegmund/Frankenberg climate classification, Valencia has a subtropical climate.

The maximum of precipitation occurs in the Autumn, coinciding with the time of the year when cold drop (''gota fría'') episodes of heavy rainfall—associated to cut-off low pressure systems at high altitude— are common along the Western mediterranean coast. The year-on-year variability in precipitation may be, however, considerable.

Its average annual temperature is ; during the day and at night.
In the coldest month, January, the maximum daily temperature typically ranges from , the minimum temperature typically at night ranges from . During the warmest months – July and August, the maximum temperature during the day typically ranges from , about at night. March is transitional, the temperature often exceeds , with an average temperature of during the day and at night. December, January and February are the coldest months, with average temperatures around during the day and at night. Snowfall is extremely rare; the most recent occasion snow accumulated on the ground was on 11 January 1960. Valencia has one of the mildest winters in Europe, owing to its southern location on the Mediterranean Sea and the Foehn phenomenon, locally known as ''ponentà''. The January average is comparable to temperatures expected for May and September in the major cities of northern Europe.

The highest and lowest temperatures recorded in the city since 1937 were on 27 August 2010 and on 11 February 1956.

Valencia, on average, has 2,696 sunshine hours per year, from 155 in December (average of 5 hours of sunshine duration a day) to 315 in July (average above 10 hours of sunshine duration a day). The average temperature of the sea is in winter and in summer. Average annual relative humidity is 65%.

History

Roman colony

Valencia is one of the oldest cities in Spain, founded in the Roman period, c. 138 BC, under the name "Valentia Edetanorum". A few centuries later, with the power vacuum left by the demise of the Roman imperial administration, the Catholic Church assumed the reins of power in the city, coinciding with the first waves of the invading Germanic peoples (Suevi, Vandals and Alans, and later the Visigoths).

Middle Ages

The city surrendered to the invading Moors (Arabs) about 714 AD. Abd al-Rahman I laid waste to old Valencia by 788–789. From then on, the name of Valencia (arabised as ''Balansiya'') appears more related to the wider area than to the city, which is primarily cited as ''Madînat al-Turâb'' (city of 'earth', 'sand' or possibly 'dirt') and presumably had a diminished importance throughout the period. During the emiral period, the surrounding territory, under the ascendancy of Berber chieftains, was prone to unruliness. In the wake of the start of the fitna of al-Andalus, Valencia became the head of an independent emirate, initially controlled by eunuchs, and then, after 1021, by Abd al-Azîz (a grand son of Almanzor). Valencia experienced a notable urban development in this period. Many Jews lived in Valencia, including the accomplished Jewish poet Solomon ibn Gabirol, who spent his last years in the city.Angel Saénz-Badillos, “Valencia”, in: ''Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World'', Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. First published online: 2010 After a damaging offensive by Castilian–Leonese forces towards 1065, the territory became a satellite of the Taifa of Toledo, and following the fall of the latter in 1085, a protectorate of "El Cid". A revolt erupted in 1092, handing the city to the Almoravids and forcing El Cid to take the city by force in 1094, henceforth establishing his own principality.

Following the evacuation of the city in 1102, Almoravids took control. As the Almoravid empire crumbled in the mid 12th-century, ibn Mardanīsh took control of eastern al-Andalus, creating a Murcia-centered independent emirate to which Valencia belonged, resisting Almohads until 1172. During the Almohad rule the city perhaps had a population of about 20,000. When the city fell to James I of Aragon, the Jewish population constituted about 7 percent of the total population.

In 1238, King James I of Aragon, with an army composed of Aragonese, Catalans, Navarrese and crusaders from the Order of Calatrava, laid siege to Valencia and on 28 September obtained a surrender. Fifty thousand Moors were forced to leave.

The city endured serious troubles in the mid-14th century, including the decimation of the population by the Black Death of 1348 and subsequent years of epidemics — as well as a series of wars and riots that followed. In 1391, the Jewish quarter was destroyed in a pogrom.

Genoese traders promoted the expansion of the cultivation of white mulberry in the area by the late 14th century, and later introducing innovative silk manufacturing techniques. The city became a centre of production of mulberry and was, at least for a time, a major silk-making centre. The Genoese community in Valencia—merchants, artisans and workers—became, along with Seville's, one of the most important in the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1407, following the model of the Barcelona's institution created some years before, a ''Taula de canvi'' (a sort of municipal public bank) was created in Valencia, although its first iteration yielded limited success.

The 15th century was a time of economic expansion, known as the Valencian Golden Age, during which culture and the arts flourished. Concurrent population growth made Valencia the most populous city in the Crown of Aragon. Some of the landmark buildings of the city were built during the Late Middle Ages, including the Serranos Towers (1392), the Silk Exchange (1482), the , and the Chapel of the Kings of the Convent of Sant Domènec. In painting and sculpture, Flemish and Italian trends had an influence on Valencian artists.

Valencia became a major slave trade centre in the 15th century, second only to Lisbon in the West, prompting a Lisbon– Seville–Valencia axis by the second half of the century, powered by the incipient Portuguese slave trade originating in Western Africa. By the end of the 15th century Valencia was one of the largest European cities, being the most populated city in the Hispanic Monarchy and second to Lisbon in the Iberian Peninsula.

Modern history

Following the death of Ferdinand II in 1516, the nobiliary estate challenged the Crown amid the relative void of power. In 1519, the ''Taula de Canvis'' was recreated again, known as ''Nova Taula''. The nobles earned the rejection from the people of Valencia, and the whole kingdom was plunged into armed revolt—the Revolt of the Brotherhoods—and full blown civil war between 1521 and 1522. Muslims vassals were forced to convert in 1526 at behest of Charles V.

Urban and rural delinquency—linked to phenomena such as vagrancy, gambling, larceny, pimping and false begging—as well as the nobiliary banditry consisting of the revenges and rivalries between the aristocratic families flourished in Valencia during the 16th century.

Also during the 16th century, the North-African piracy targeted the whole coastline of the kingdom of Valencia, forcing the fortification of sites. By the late 1520s, the intensification of the activity of the Barbary corsairs along the conflictive domestic situation and the emergence of the Atlantic Ocean in detriment of the Mediterranean in the global trade networks put an end to the economic splendor of the city. The piracy also paved the way for the ensuing development of Christian piracy, that had Valencia as one of its main bases in the Iberian Mediterranean. The Berber threat—initially with Ottoman support—generated great insecurity on the coast, and it would not be substantially reduced until the 1580s.

The crisis deepened during the 17th century with the expulsion in 1609 of the Moriscos, descendants of the Muslim population that had converted to Christianity. The Spanish government systematically forced Moriscos to leave the kingdom for Muslim North Africa. They were concentrated in the former Crown of Aragon, and in the Kingdom of Valencia specifically, they constituted roughly a third of the total population. The expulsion caused the financial ruin of some of the Valencian nobility and the bankruptcy of the Taula de canvi financial institution in 1613.

The decline of the city reached its nadir with the War of Spanish Succession (1702–1709), marking the end of the political and legal independence of the Kingdom of Valencia. During the War of the Spanish Succession, Valencia sided with the Habsburg ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles of Austria. King Charles of Austria vowed to protect the laws of the Kingdom of Valencia ('' Furs''), which gained him the sympathy of a wide sector of the Valencian population. On 24 January 1706, Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough, 1st Earl of Monmouth, led a handful of English cavalrymen into the city after riding south from Barcelona, captured the nearby fortress at Sagunt, and bluffed the Spanish Bourbon army into withdrawal.

The English held the city for 16 months and defeated several attempts to expel them. After the victory of the Bourbons at the Battle of Almansa on 25 April 1707, the English army evacuated Valencia and Philip V ordered the repeal of the Furs of Valencia as punishment for the kingdom's support of Charles of Austria. By the Nueva Planta decrees (''Decretos de Nueva Planta'') the ancient Charters of Valencia were abolished and the city was governed by the Castilian Charter, similarly to other places in the Crown of Aragon.

The Valencian economy recovered during the 18th century with the rising manufacture of woven silk and ceramic tiles. The silk industry boomed during this century, with the city replacing Toledo as the main silk-manufacturing centre in Spain. The Palau de Justícia is an example of the affluence manifested in the most prosperous times of Bourbon rule (1758–1802) during the rule of Charles III. The 18th century was the age of the Enlightenment in Europe, and its humanistic ideals influenced such men as Gregory Maians and Pérez Bayer in Valencia, who maintained correspondence with the leading French and German thinkers of the time.

The 19th century began with Spain embroiled in wars with France, Portugal, and England—but the War of Independence most affected the Valencian territories and the capital city. The repercussions of the French Revolution were still felt when Napoleon's armies invaded the Iberian Peninsula. The Valencian people rose up in arms against them on 23 May 1808, inspired by leaders such as Vicent Doménech el Palleter.

The mutineers seized the Citadel, a Supreme Junta government took over, and on 26–28 June, Napoleon's Marshal Moncey attacked the city with a column of 9,000 French imperial troops in the First Battle of Valencia. He failed to take the city in two assaults and retreated to Madrid. Marshal Suchet began a long siege of the city in October 1811, and after intense bombardment forced it to surrender on 8 January 1812. After the capitulation, the French instituted reforms in Valencia, which became the capital of Spain when the Bonapartist pretender to the throne, José I ( Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's elder brother), moved the Court there in the middle of 1812. The disaster of the Battle of Vitoria on 21 June 1813 obliged Suchet to quit Valencia, and the French troops withdrew in July.

Ferdinand VII became king after the victorious end of the Peninsular War, which freed Spain from Napoleonic domination. When he returned on 24 March 1814 from exile in France, the Cortes requested that he respect the liberal Constitution of 1812, which seriously limited royal powers. Ferdinand refused and went to Valencia instead of Madrid. Here, on 17 April, General Elio invited the King to reclaim his absolute rights and put his troops at the King's disposition. The king abolished the Constitution of 1812 and dissolved the two chambers of the Spanish Parliament on 10 May. Thus began six years (1814–1820) of absolutist rule, but the constitution was reinstated during the Trienio Liberal, a period of t