Valencia

This article is about the original city in Spain called "Valencia". For other uses of the name, see Valencia (disambiguation).

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Valencia (Spanish: Valencia /ba'lenθja/; Catalan: València /və'łεnsjə/) is a medium-sized port city (the third largest city in Spain) and industrial area on the east coast of Spain. It is the capital of the Valencian Country and of the province of Valencia. As of the 2003 census, the population of the city of Valencia proper was 780,653, and the population of the entire urban area was estimated to be 1,465,423, ranking as the third-largest urban area of Spain.

It is famous for the Las Fallas festival in March, for paella valenciana and the new City of Arts and Sciences

Valencia has a metro system , run by FGV. Valencia has a reasonably successful football club known as Valencia C.F.

It is a predominantly Spanish-speaking city, but significant minority still speak Catalan (virtually always known locally as "Valencian"), particularly with family. For many this is an important issue, and the local government makes sure it emphasises the use of the local language. For instance, all signs in the Metro are in Valencian, with Spanish translations underneath in smaller type, as though it were a foreign language.

History

Founded by the Romans in 137 BC on the site of a former Iberian town, by the river Turia. The river flooded in the 1950s killing many Valencians. The river was re-routed and the empty river bed was converted to a park that runs through the city. The city has been occupied by the Visigoths, Moors and the Aragonese. In 1094, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid) conquered Valencia (this victory was immortialised in the Lay of the Cid), but the city returned to the Almoravids in 1102. The king James I of Aragon reconquered the city in 1238 and incorporated it to the new formed Kingdom of Valencia, one of the kingdoms within the Crown of Aragon.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Valencia was one of the major cities in the Mediterranean. The writer Joanot Martorell, author of Tirant lo Blanch, and the poet Ausias March are famous Valencians of that era.

The first printing press in the Iberian Peninsula was located in Valencia. The first printed Bible in a romance language, Catalan, was printed in Valencia circa 1478, attributed to Bonifaci Ferrer.

Valencian bankers loaned funds to Queen Isabella for Columbus' trip in 1492.

War of the Germanies 1519–1522.

Expulsion of Moriscos in 1609.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, Valencia sided with Charles of Austria. After the victory of the Bourbons at the Battle of Almansa (April 25, 1707), the city lost its privileges or furs.

After the fall of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War, the capital of the Republic was moved to Valencia. The city suffered from the blockade and siege by Franco's forces. The postwar period was hard for Valencians. During the Franco years, speaking or teaching Valencian was prohibited; using the language at all was subject to criminal penalties.

Valencia was granted Autonomous Statutes in 1982.

The name

The original Latin name of the city was Valentia /wa'lentia/, meaning "Strength", "Vigour". By regular sound changes this has become Valencia /ba'lenθja/ in Castilian Spanish and València in Catalan. The latter name is pronounced /bə'łεnsjə/ in the Standard Central Catalan that one might hear in Barcelona; however, in Valencian (a West Catalan dialect), it is more like /va'lensja/.

Certain Valencian regionalists prefer to ignore the Normes de Castelló (the rules that govern the spelling of the Catalan language) in order to assert their belief that Valencian is a separate language. This has the effect of removing the grave accent from the name, and making look the same as in Spanish.

See International Phonetic Alphabet for the symbols used to represent pronunciation.