The Real Valencia - The Barrio de Ruzafa

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FEATURES |

VALENCIA

FEATURES |

VALENCIA

MOST VISITORS TO Valencia

head for the Barrio del Carmen – the medieval centre of the city – to take a beer in a bar and a meal in one of the back-street restaurants.

They then perhaps go on to a late-night disco, thinking they’ve done the city. The valencianos are happy with that, because Carmen is old hat; these days the locals head off to Ruzafa. A casual stroll across this district will take you all of 15 minutes, but you would pass through a United Nations mix of cultures, people and histories, all living side-by-side, happily co-existing with their Spanish neighbours: Arabs, Chinese, Pakistanis, Italians, Senegalese, Irish, English, Russian, Australian; people from every northern-European and Latin American country, and pretty much everywhere else besides. This diverse population gives the area its unique feel. Ruzafa is still very much a barrio de toda la vida, a basic working-class neighbourhood. Until as recently as 10 years ago, it was little more than a rundown area to the east of the central train station, Estació del Nord, while the Barrio del Carmen attracted much of the attention and investment. The layout of the streets created enormous internal ground-floor spaces that stretched into the centre of the building. They were primarily used for garages, storage spaces and supermarkets, but many were simply abandoned. A few adventurous artists began to rent these spaces at peppercorn rents and, just as

THE

REAL

VALENCIA

RUZAFA IS THE WORKING-CLASS BARRIO WHERE VALENCIANOS GO

FOR THE BEST BARS, CAFÉS AND ART GALLERIES DEREK WORKMAN

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