Central Market (Mercado Central)

Chapter 6/11 · València

The Central Market is one of Europe's great covered markets, in Valencian Art Nouveau style. It was designed in 1914 by the Catalan architects Francesc Guàrdia i Vial and Alexandre Soler i March, who had worked with Domènech i Montaner, and it opened in January 1928.

It covers about 8,500 square metres, including the market and the fish hall, and has hundreds of stalls selling fruit, vegetables, meat, cured sausage and fish. Look at the iron and glass domes, and the colourful ceramics and mosaics: light pours in from everywhere.

On top of the dome turns a weather vane shaped like a parrot: the Cotorra del Mercat. Opposite, on the church of the Santos Juanes, stands the Pardal or Pardalot de Sant Joan, which is really the eagle of Saint John the Evangelist. According to tradition, the two weather vanes chat about the gossip of the square. If it is morning, go in: it is the best place to taste the produce of the Valencian farmland.

We cross Plaza del Mercado to the façade of the Silk Exchange, just opposite.

← Plaza Redonda (Round Square) · Silk Exchange (Lonja de la Seda) →