L'Almoina, Roman Valencia

Look down at the square: beneath that sheet of glass covered in water lie the foundations of Valencia. Here, behind the cathedral, the City Council began excavating the heart of the Roman city in 1985, and today the L'Almoina site can be seen from above, as if through a pond.

1The birth of Valentia

According to the summary of Livy's history, the consul Decimus Junius Brutus gave land and a town to soldiers who had fought in the Lusitanian wars. That is how Valentia was born, in 138 BC, and why the square bears the consul's name. Very close to here, the two main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, crossed, and this was where the forum stood.

2A city razed

In 75 BC, during the war between Sertorius and Pompey, Valentia was destroyed. On this site archaeologists found a chilling trace of that episode: the remains of several men who had been violently executed, probably soldiers. The city took decades to recover.

3Layers of history

On top of the Roman remains lie baths, a baptistery and an apse from the Visigothic period linked to the cult of Saint Vincent the Martyr, and higher still the remains of the Islamic alcázar. The name L'Almoina, “the alms”, recalls the house where the cathedral chapter handed out charity in the Middle Ages.

Few cities let you look down at their own birth from a public square.

4What to look for

• The glass and water cover, at ground level, with the ruins beneath.
• The cathedral's Almoina Door, Romanesque and the oldest in the building.
• The Gothic east end of the cathedral, which closes off the square to the west.