Valencia

Valencia, (1) a seaport of Spain, formerly capital of the kingdom, and now of the province of the same name, stands on the shores of the Mediterranean, 3 miles from the mouth of the Guadalquivir and 200 miles SW. of Barcelona by rail. In the Huerta ('garden') surrounding the city the carob, citron, orange, palm, and mulberry grow in wild luxuriance. The old picturesque battlemented walls, erected by Pedro IV. in 1356, were removed in 1871; and while, in the old quarters, the houses are closely packed and gloomy-looking, well suited to keep out the heat, those recently erected are gaily-coloured and furnished with courts freshened with flowers and cooled by fountains. Valencia is the see of an archbishop, and its cathedral, which was commenced in 1262, classical in the interior, and Gothic on the exterior, is 350 feet long. The church of the Colegio de Corpus is quite a museum of pictures by Ribalta. The picture-gallery contains chiefly the productions of the Valencian school (Juanes, the Ribaltas, Ribera, &c.). The university has a library of 42,000 vols. The custom-house, dating from 1758, is now a cigar-factory. Silk-spinning and weaving are extensively carried on; there are also manufactures of cloths, hats, glass, linen, leather, cigars, and Valencia tiles for flooring. The exports are mainly grain, silk, rice, and fruits. Pop. (1887) 170,763; (1897) 204,768.—Valencia, or Valentia del Cid, dating from the second century B.C., was destroyed by Pompey, taken by the Goths in 413 A.D., by the Moors in 715, and by the Cid in 1094. The union of Ferdinand and Isabella brought it under the Castilian crown. Suchet captured the city in 1812.—The old kingdom of Valencia, now subdivided into the three modern provinces of Valencia, Alicante, and Castellon de la Plana, comprises a tract of country in the east of Spain, washed by the Mediterranean, and extending from Catalonia to Murcia. It has a hot but fine climate, a fertile soil, mineral wealth, and many industries; see SPAIN.—(2) Valencia de Alcántara, a town and fortress of Cáceres province, is the frontier station on the line from Madrid (250 miles ENE.) to Lisbon (159 miles WSW.). Pop. 8230.