Valencia City of Arts and Sciences Tourist Guide Valencia

Santiago Calatrava’s “L’Assut de D’Or” bridge majestically straddles the river Turia and when it was opened it became the 19th bridge across the river.
The L’Assut de D’Or is now Spain ‘s longest bridge at 180 metres in length by 39 metres wide. It cost  over €34.4 million and reaches  a height of 123 metres as it streches into Valencia ‘s heavenly blue skies.
When it was opened it was said to be “the lighthouse that indicates where modern Valencia is”.
The structure itself is principally composed of steel and reinforced concrete with the main mast inclined at an angle of 40 degrees and [...]

The Puente Nou D’Octubre was built to commemorate the events of the 9th of October (the day when King James I the Conqueror, entered the city of Valencia, after the capitulation of 1238 Muslim) and it sits at the western end of the riverbed.
It was built in the eighties by the promising, but not yet recognized Valencian architect (of Benimámet) Santiago Calatrava.
His originality is clear in the form of four abstract sculptures that adorn the entrances. It was undoubtedly the work of an emerging artist who had still not found the style that would later make him famous and create the purity [...]

The Puente De Monteolivete spans majestically over the City of Arts and Sciences linking the Pl. Europa and the Av. Autopista del Saler Valencia. This bridge became very famous when Pope Benedict XVI visited and gave Mass in July 2006.
It is consistently aesthetic to its surroundings and offers an amazing view of the Arts and Science complex.
In the evening the Puente De Monteolivete, which separates l’Monteolivete Hemisfèric and the Palau de les Arts lights up with lamps instead of the 2090 fluorescent tubes that were included in the original design of architect Santiago Calatrava .
The City Council took this decision inline [...]

The Puente del Mar gets it’s name from being the natural way to the Grao or port, where the city’s goods arrived.
It was originally constructed of wood and but was destroyed in the flood of 1487. It was rebuilt in a factory but was destroyed again by the flood of 1589, having to be rebuilt again as it served as a link with the very busy road from the port during the sixteenth century.
The reconstruction was carried out at the request of the Board of Murs i Valls between1596 – 1597 this time using ashlar stone. The rebuild design consisted of 10 lowered [...]

The Puente De Los Astilleros or the Puente De Nazaret links Ejército Español and Camino de las Moreras.
Puente De Los Astilleros crosses the river linking the Nazaret district and the Port, between the dockyards and the marine Headquarters.
It is built with reinforced concrete and artificial stone, with railings made from cast iron and ornate concrete pillars supporting the streetlights.
When it was built, the bridge had a central section of ballast and rails, but over time these have been removed so that the bridge can carry lanes of traffic.

The Puente del Angel Custodio was designed by the Municipal Engineer Arturo Piera.
It was constructed of reinforced concrete, has six straight sections and two points on central arbours.
The hedges are organised centrally and side roads run across the bridge. Rectangular mini roundabouts provide the links onto the riverbed below. It connects the old inner ring road between Eduardo Boscá and Peris y Valero.
Recently, the bridge has been equipped with cast iron street lamps reminiscent of 19th century Paris.

Puente de las Artes was constructed in the late 1990s, at the dawn of the new millennium, designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster (who also created Valencia’s Conference Centre).
It joins the road Guillem de Castro with that of Padre Ferris. It was designed around and on the Turia Riverbed Gardens, not to have a river flowing under it, but to combine with the environment and harmonise with the views and feelings of the gardens.
With its state-of-the-art engineering, the Puente de las Artes provides a touch of modernity in contrast to the nearby ancient bridges with their great ashlars, yet its two 20-metre [...]

The original Puente de los Serranos was destroyed, like so many others in the flood of 1517.
A year later, the current one was constructed by the Fabrica de Murs i Valls. It is an amazing piece of Gothic engineering with nine large arches supported by huge piles of rock with large stirrups and breakwaters.
At the end of the seventeenth century, it still had five statues on its barbican representing San Pedro Nolasco, Saint Peter Pascual, Father Jofre, Mrs. Teresa Gil de Vidaure and Our Lady of Mercy. Today the bridge does not have any image or ornaments of any kind on the [...]

The Puente de la Trinidad is the oldest of the bridges along the old Turia Riverbed.
It was built in a Gothic style during the fourteenth century, on the remains of an older Moorish wooden bridge which had been swept away in a flood.
The bridge is set upon a base of ten arches, slightly pointed on spurs and stirrups and actually had to be rebuilt after the flood of 1517.
The majestic bridge was designed and built by Pedro Viñes who added two structures in the centre for the purpose of housing the Baroque statues of San Luís Beltrán and Santo Tomas de [...]

Linking the roads Guillem de Castro, Blanquerías and Llano de Zaidia,the Puente de San Jose was constructed in the fourteenth century and is one of Valencias oldest bridges.
It was little more than a wooden bridge when it was first built and acted as the gateway from the ‘Portal Nou’ within the city walls to the countryside to the north.
This gateway resembled the towers that still stand today, the Torres de los Serranos and Torres de Quart, but unfortunately the ‘portal nou’ no longer exists.
The initial wood structure was created to facilitate communication with nearby neighbourhoods and Marchalenes Zaidi. As with many [...]