Valencia - Torres de Serranos

According to the Roman historian Titus Livius "Valentia" was founded by Consul Decimus Iunius Brutus Callaicus in the 4th century BC,

A century later "Valentia Edetanorum" became one of the first Hispanic cities to become a Roman colony.

The city made rapid progress after the Arab conquest in 711, reaching 15,000 inhabitants in the Caliphate of Córdoba. The Amirids and the Dhun Nunids ruled in “Balansiya”. In 1094, El Cid, a Castilian noble, conquered the city. The conquest was not carried out on behalf of one of the Christian kingdoms, but on the Cid's own account, who proclaimed himself "Señor de Valencia" and thus created a kind of private kingdom. He was able to defend the city against several Almoravid attacks, and after his death in 1099, his widow Jimena managed to hold Valencia until 1102, when it fell to the Almoravids, and a little later to the Almohads.

After the victory of the united Christian armies over the Almohads in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), Moorish Spain fell apart again into individual small kingdoms, including a Taifa from Valencia.

It was finally conquered in 1238 by Jaime​ I de Aragón (aka "el Conquistador"), after a five-month siege.

In the 15th century, the city grew rapidly and developed into one of the largest Mediterranean ports and an important trade and financial center. At the beginning of the 15th century the city had around 40,000 inhabitants; in 1483 around 75,000 people lived here. During this time, numerous Gothic city palaces were built.

The gate was built 1392 - 1398 as one of the main gates of the medieval city wall by the master builder Pere Balaguer. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, the building served as one of the city's prisons. Due to protests against the inhumane conditions in the towers, the prison was closed in 1888. During the Spanish Civil War, works of art from the Museo del Prado and other Madrid museums were kept in these towers, because of the threat of Francoist bombings.