Valencia
capital city of the Valencian Community, Spain
Valencia, known officially in Valencian as València, is the capital and largest city of the Valencian Community and the province of the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula on the Mediterranean Sea. With a population of 824,340, it is the third most-populous city in Spain. The urban area of Valencia has 1.6 million people while the metropolitan region has 2.5 million.
Valencia was founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC as
"Valentia Edetanorum". As an autonomous city in late antiquity, its militarization followed the onset of the threat posed by the Byzantine presence to the South, together with effective integration to the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo in the late 6th century. Islamic rule and acculturation ensued in the 8th century, together with the introduction of new irrigation systems and crops. With the Aragonese Christian conquest in 1238, the city became the capital of the Kingdom of Valencia.
Due to trade with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, Italian ports, and other Mediterranean locations, the city thrived in the 15th century and Valencia had become one of the largest European cities by the end of the century. The emergence of the Atlantic World affected Mediterranean trade in the global trade networks and, along with insecurity created by Barbary piracy throughout the 16th century.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Valencia” as capital city of the Valencian Community, Spain. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as capital city of the Valencian Community, Spain. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8818. VIAF identifies the subject as 167320322. The Library of Congress control number is n78095488. Authority coordinates are 39.470, -0.376. 4 of 8 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1238.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Valencia”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Valencia primary sources, Valencia archive and Valencia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Valencia”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Valencia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.