Guide of Valencia

A hard economic crisis in 1866 made many workshops and shops in Valencia to close and in September 1868 broke out “the glorious” revolution. Unlike other cities the Valencian revolutionaries did not commit abuses against religious and the Archbishop was respected.

In September 1871 the king Amadeo I made a brief visit to the city of Valencia, although this is not very favorable to the monarchy Amadeista. With the fall of Pi y Margall the cantonalism spred. The Valencian Canton was proclaimed on July 22, 1873 with great enthusiasm of the people. On 26 July the siege of the city began. The valencian revolutionists resisted thirteen days, but they surrendered as a result of the horrors and damages of the bombing. In January 1874 general Pavia made a coup d’état and dissolved the courts of the Republic.

The demolition of the wall favored the linkage between the cores of Valencia and Grau, the round of the wall became the city’s beltway and widening works were started. The increase of the population in 1900 was significant due to the annexation of municipalities around as Patraix, Beniferri Benicalap, Ruzafa, etc. In the painting Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) standed out and in the sculpture Mariano Benlliure (1862-1947) highlighted. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, a valencian writer worldwide recognized, was personifying the republicanism of the first half of the XXth century.

The neutrality of Spain during World War I allowed big business to those who traded with the belligerent countries. But in Valencia at that time the price of food increased 40% to 60% while the wages did not rise up to 1919-20. The situation became more serious in 1917 with the maritime blockade imposed by Germany, which meant the agricultural collapse. The class struggle deepened after 1917, there were bombs, personal attacks and counter-terrorism. The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera is implanted in September 1923. That same year Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia had visited Valencia to preside over the coronation of the Virgen de los Desamparados. In 1924 Blasco Ibáñez published from exile a violent pamphlet against the dictator and King.

The Central market was still a base of booths that were dismantled at noon, since the new modernist building was still under construction (1910-28). Mercado de Colón (1914) and North railway station are other modernist buildings. In 1929 the dictatorship provoked crisis and lost the bourgeoisie support. In January of the same year a military coup in Valencia failed and in 1930 the monarchy fell.