Serranos Towers and the old Turia riverbed
Chapter 10/11 · València
The Serranos Towers are the main gate of the old wall and one of the largest Gothic monuments in the city. Pere Balaguer built them between 1392 and 1398, on the site of the old Muslim gate. Kings and embassies entered through here; from 1586 until the nineteenth century they were a prison for nobles.
During the Civil War they sheltered paintings from the Prado Museum, protected under a concrete vault. And every year, on the last Sunday of February, the Crida, the proclamation that opens Fallas, is given from the top. You can climb up: from there you see the whole old riverbed.
The River Turia used to flow right in front. After the great flood of 14 October 1957, the river was diverted south of the city, and residents campaigned with the slogan «El llit del Túria és nostre i el volem verd», the riverbed is ours and we want it green. That is how the Turia Gardens were born in 1986, a park about eight and a half kilometres long that crosses the city beneath its old bridges.
We go back along Carrer dels Serrans and Carrer de Cavallers to Plaza de la Virgen.
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