Valencia Private tour, El Carmen Quarter & street art tour

We will start from the port doing a little sightseeing tour and stopping at the Serranos Towers, and from there we will start the walking tour.
During this tour we could see the old quarter of el Carmen and also some interesting grafiti and street art pieces.
In this quarter we will also see historical shops with centuries of history. We will find narrow alleys, beautiful squares, and historic buildings, this is a bohemian and multicultural environment.

We can start by the Serranos Towers/Gate.
That gate is one of the twelve that formed part of the ancient city wall (Christian city Wall). It was built at the end of the XIV century. Its name is probably due to its location in the northest of the city centre, making it the entry point for the royal road that connected Valencia with the region of "els Serrans".

The Casa de las Rocas – that museum houses the triumphal floats, and other items that paraded in the Corpus Christi procession.

The old convent of the Carmen - the emblematic neighborhood owes its name to the church and Convent of el Carmen, and as well to the adjacent square.
The monumental complex of this old convent illustrates, from its chronological complexity and diversity of artistic styles.
This building is composed of several nuclei such as the medieval Chapter Hall, the gothic Cloister, the Refectory, the former Monks’Dormitory, the Renaissance cloister with its Tuscan capitals, and the new church, today the parish of Santa Cruz, the last one with Late Gothic and Renaissance elements, the Communion chapel, the Baroque façade and bell tower, as well as the valuable neoclassical exponents such as the chapel of the Third Order.
The Centre del Carme has turned into a cultural and exhibition space, with a vast program of activities, and it is seat of the Consortium of Museums of the Valencian Community

Near to this Centre del Carmen, we will see the tiny Haus of the Cats.

A little further on we will find the centenary Plaza del Árbol with the Insa House and a Wine Cellar.

The INSA House, today converted into a hotel, but it has its own story to tell, because it is located in an 18th century mansion, a manor house. But this construction was carried out on an old one of XVIe century. For 150 years, the building housed the famous Casa Insa, a clothing store (roperia) known to the Valencians for making regional costumes, renting costumes and among others for the Corpus Christi festival.

The 13th century Wine Cellar is located under a garage in Plaza del Árbol, and it was opened in 2017.
It is a space that corresponded to the basement of a Christian manor house designed for the production and storage of wine.
It was recovered in the late 1990s thanks to various archaeological intervention campaigns. There you can taste wine and other drinks typical of the Valencian Community.

Nearby, we can also see the remains of the Arab city wall. It has been a National Historic Monument since 1963 with a large 11th century tower, it is completely integrated into the building, and it is made of masonry.
We will continue till the Portal de Valldigna, that is a portal opened in 1400, and that separated the Christian city from of the "morería" (muslims) from Valencia. It is a door, which takes the name from the Monastery of Santa Maria de Valldigna (Simat the Valldigna), and furthermore the abbot's house stood before the portal.

we can also visit the famous Mossén Sorell Market, with a wide range of gourmet products.

Walking through the neighborhood of El Carmen is like doing it through the corridors of an open-air museum, where artists such as Blu, Escif, la Nena, Julieta, Deih, Xelón, Blu, Luís Lonjedo, Disneylexya, or Limón have left a trace of their talent.
Urban art has been transformed over time, going from being considered "vandalism" or clandestine, to being one of the most appreciated forms of modern art. It is a popular art and in many cases ephemeral.
We will see the so called now "the Street of the colours" the photograph of a Kiss. This is a well known calle Moret, where several pieces of street art are represented on a wall 60 meter long, "the mystery of a Kiss", with the hashtag #kissmeVLC …

See you soon in el Carmen!