Spain, Valencia

The province of Valencia in the largest of the three which go to make up the Valencian Community. It is situated in the centre of the Spanish Mediterranean coastline, latitude 40º 15´N and 38º 73´S and longitude 0º 01´E and 1º 34´W.

It overlooks the spacious Gulf of Valencia and is skirted at the back by a group of medium-high mountains and rolling plains leading to the lands of Aragon and Castile-La Mancha.

It is opposite the Balearic Islands and equidistant from the country´s two major decision-taking centres: Madrid and Barcelona.

Valencia´s main tourist attractions are to be found in its cultural wealth, a sound infrastructure for business trips, a network of accommodation situated on clean beaches, its range of of nature reserves, its varied calendar of fiestas and rich gastronomy.

A supply of accommodation of 95 hotels, 49 hostels, 417 apartments, 35 campsites an two spas make it possible to receive a large number of visitors every season.

In the fifteenth century, Valencia witnessed a golden age, when the political autonomy granted by the Aragonese king, James I, the boom of the skills trade, the literary audacity of its writers and poets and the Mediterranean ambitions of its rulers and nobles made it into an unqustionable power of the period.

Nowadays, Valencia is working on major projects and infrastuctures so as to enter the twenty-first century renewed and firmily rooted in the modern era.

History

Long before the arrival of the Romans in Spain, the territory of what is now Valencia was inhabited by Iberian peoples. This early stratum was successively overlaid with Greeks, Romans, Visigoths and Muslims.

Whatever the pre-Roman ethnic roots of eastern Spain may have been, the fact is that it was intensely Romanized. However, even greater was the subsequent Muslim influence, to the extent that except for a shortlived conquest by the Cid in 1088, the population of this part of the Peninsula was fundamentally Muslim.

The basic origin of Valencia as a national community with a political identity of its own goes back to the year 1238, when King James I conquered the city of Valencia. However, he did not annex it to the kingdom of Aragon or Catalunya, but made it into an autonomous kingdom within the group of States under his sceptre. Despite the predominantly Catalan nature of the conquest, Valencia is a self-governing State with an identity of its own and a special parliament and institutions.

After the Middle Ages, economic growth was subject to sudden halts, such as the war of the 'Germanias' (1519-1522) and the expulsion of the 'Moriscos' in 1616, which marked the beginning of its decline.

At the beginning of the 18th century, in the War of Succession, the Valencian people took the side of the Archduke of Austria while most of the nobility were in favour of Philip V. The success of the latter brought about the abolition of local charters and the end of the region's traditional autonomy.

During the last two centuries, Valencian politics has been a reflection of the Spanish situation as seen from the capital of the State.

Climate

The region of Valencia has a mainly Mediterranean climate: warm and dry summers, and mild winters. The rainy season is mainly in spring and in autumn. There are often torrential rainfalls. Inland in the higher reaches of the region the rainfall may turn to snow. The temperatures are pleasant all year round, with an average that does not fall below 15ºC, with the exception of the mountain areas, where temperatures can fall below freezing.