The Silk Road in Valencia

Spain was included in 2015 as the 32nd Member State in the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organisation) Silk Road Program.
Valencia was an important silk center, located at kilometer 9090 of the historical maps of the route.
In the Velluters and Mercat neighborhood we have the most emblematic buildings that remind us of their historical importance.

Discover the THE SILK ROAD in Valencia

Spain was included in 2015 as the 32nd Member State in the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organisation) Silk Road Program.
Valencia was an important silk center, located at kilometer 9090 of the historical maps of the route.
In the Velluters and Mercat neighborhood we have the most emblematic buildings that remind us of their historical importance.

During this tour we will visit:

• The College of High Silk Art / Silk Museum

A historical building, symbol of the splendor of the Valencian silk trade and industry, which reopened its doors fully recovered, in June 2016 as the Silk Museum of Valencia, after two years restoration and after a private investment of almost two million euros by the Hortensia Herrero Foundation.

This foundation decided to assumed the rescue of the building.

We will visit this Museum to learn about the history of Valencian silk, we will see:

The Historical Archive, the Chapel, the Pometa Hall, the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Minor Arts and at the looms we will attend a demonstration of the artisanal elaboration process of the small suttles called “espolín”.

• We will walk through the Velluters neighborhood to learn about its history and see its physical configuration linked to its feverish and productive origin, we will see one of the “workshop-house” facades, such as the Palacio de Tamarit.
This building was built as a family house and workshop by D. Vicente Tamarit in the 18th century, today it is the headquarters of FUNDACODE (Foundation for Interregional Cooperation and Development), as well as Unesco / Valencia.

• We will visit the Balmes Palace

An architectural jewel, built in the s. XV by the Valencian wood artisans for the meetings of the brotherhood, it was rebuilt in the XVIII century by the carpenters themselves as gild headquarters and rehabilitated at the end of the s. XX.

• La Lonja de la Seda – Silk Exchange

An emblematic building of Valencia, and one of the most outstanding example of European civil gothic from XV-XVI century, declared World Heritage Monument in 1996 by UNWTO. The Silk Exchange is the best testimony of the splendor reached by the silk trade in Valencia. Conceived as a temple for commerce and used essentially for the purchase and sale of silk fabrics, throughout history it has had different uses. The Second Meeting of the Unesco “Silk Road” Program was held here between June 8 and 12, 2016.

Possibility of visiting:

The Royal College of the Pious Schools (Piarists), whose Order of Poor Clerics Regular was founded in the early XVII century by the Spanish San José de Calasanz, with the primary goal of provide free education for poor children.
The Church of the Pious Schools is a reference and pure example of Valencian neoclassicism, marked by the academic guidelines of the Royal Academy of San Carlos. Known for supporting the largest dome in Valencia with its 40-meter and second largest in Spain.

Also under reservation in advance you can visit the March Workshop, located in the heart of the Carmen neighborhood, one of the most charming neighborhoods in Valencia.
The Casa-taller March was created as a silk workshop in the middle of the XIX century, but soon it began to host other activities such as imagery, goldsmithing, forging and ceramics, always maintaining the traditional workshop-housing structure. Today it is the headquarters of the Association of Artists and Artisans «Labor Art» and is one of the last artisan workshops left in the historic center of Valencia.

On this visit we can include the Central Market, a modernist building, inaugurated in 1928, located in front of the Silk Exchange.

And if there is still time, we could do a tasting of “horchata” (typical drink of Valencia ) and a “fartó”.