Situated within the confines of a 16th-century monastery on the banks of the Turia riverbed, the San Pío Museum of Fine Arts is a treasure trove of medieval religious paintings, classic Valencian works, and masterpieces from the most famous of Spanish artists.
In the town of Manises, you'll find a few workshops which offer the chance to try out the art of ceramics. The most popular is hosted at the Association of Valencian Ceramics, or AVEC. A week after our initial tour of Manises, we showed up at AVEC's doors, ready to learn.
Even if you're the kind of person who refuses to visit a museum, it's impossible to completely avoid art in Valencia. For years, underground artists have been transforming the city into an open-air gallery, covering walls, fences and entire buildings with works of beauty and ingenuity.
The San Esteban is among the oldest churches in Valencia, and has become a popular spot for baptisms. Along with the nearby San Martín and San Juan de la Cruz, it forms part of the city's trio of exquisite baroque churches.
The MuVIM, or Museu Valencià de la Il·lustració i la Modernitat, is located in the park where the city's first public hospital was built, in the 14th century. Today, the municipal library occupies the former hospital building.
When the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern opened its doors in 1989, it was Spain's first museum dedicated to modern art. Found on the western corner of the old town, bordering the Turia riverbed, the IVAM is probably Valencia's most important and popular museum.
As Valencia's first family of art, the Benlliures left an indelible mark on the city's cultural landscape, around the turn of the 20th century. We visited their former home on Calle Blanquerias, which has been converted into a museum dedicated to the family and their astounding artistic output.
The neighborhood of El Carmen takes its name from the massive, ancient convent around which it was built. Today, the monks are long gone, but the Convento del Carmen has found a renewed purpose as one of the city's premiere cultural spaces.
