Valencia - Mercado Central

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 covered market is located in the historic center of Valencia. A market hall was inaugurated here in 1839, however, towards the end of the century this had become too small for the city's population. A design by Alejandro Soler March and Francisco Guardia Vial for a larger hall was accepted in 1910. The construction of the current building was started in 1914 and completed in 1928.

The Art Nouveau building consists of two halls and has a total area of 8000 m². The basic structure of the larger hall resembles a Christian church, as the two wide main aisles form a Latin cross. Above the intersection of the main aisles, there is a dome 14 meters in diameter and 27 meters high. Adjacent to the shorter main corridor is the smaller octagonal hall, which has another dome in the middle.