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Tourist information - Valencia
Valencia is a city in eastern Spain, capital of Valencia autonomous region and of Valencia Province, on a fertile plain near the mouth of the Turia River in the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the largest cities of Spain and a center for agricultural marketing, manufacturing, and communications. Industrial establishments in the city include textile mills, chemical works, metalworks, shipyards, and breweries.
Valencia is the seat of an archbishopric. It is also the site of the University of Valencia (1510) and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (1968). A museum of fine arts and a school of fine arts are in the city. Two gates remain from 14th-century walls built on Roman foundations. Among noteworthy buildings in Valencia are the Gothic cathedral (13th-15th century) and the Gothic silk exchange (15th century).
According to the Roman historian Livy, Roman soldiers occupied the site of Valencia in 138 BC. Pompey the Great partly destroyed the city in 75 BC during his campaign against the armies of the rebel leader Quintus Sertorius. Valencia remained under Rome until AD 413, when it was captured by the Visigoths. The Moors took it from the Visigoths in 714, and in 1021 they made it the capital of the independent kingdom of Valencia. Thereafter Valencia shared the fortunes of the kingdom. The city had a high level of prosperity until the early 17th century, when a commercial decline set in because of the expulsion of Moorish traders. During the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), Valencia was held by the French from 1812 to 1813. It was the capital of the Republican government for a time during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
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