The area of the Plaza de l’Almoina, both for its richness and for its state of conservation. Located in the heart of the historic city, it is an exceptional platform for exploring monumental Valencia, where we find buildings from the various cultures that have settled in Valencia, from its foundation by the Romans in 138 BC, to the Muslim era. going through the first Christian times and the Visigothic period.

In the archaeological investigation carried out in the surroundings of the 15th century chapel called San Vicente Prison, a fully vaulted Visigothic crypt appeared, dating from between the 6th and 7th centuries, which preserved a cross-shaped Visigoth funerary chapel, formed by an apse, a transept nave and a main nave, with a dome over semicircular arches at the intersection of the naves. The set included three tombs, one on the floor in the center of the transept and the other two in cists built with large stone bands that exist in two corners outside the building.

En el brazo sur del crucero de la catedral de Valencia se encuentra la puerta de l’Almoina o del Palau, único elemento románico del templo y, por tanto, el más antiguo. La catedral fue levantada sobre la Mezquita Mayor después de ser conquistada la ciudad por Jaime I el Conquistador en 1238. La puerta se encuentra en el lugar donde estaría ubicado el antiguo mihrad. Está compuesta por un arco de medio punto, seis arquivoltas, (la primera decorada con ángeles y serafines y las cinco restantes con motivos vegetales y geométricos), la cuales están sustentadas por seis pares de columnillas con capiteles historiados y, todo ello, rematado por un tejaroz compuesto por canecillos de cabezas humanas que representan los siete matrimonios que repoblaron la zona.

In 1971 it was discovered that, in some lands that were preparing to plant orange trees, the remains of a large Visigoth palace complex formed at least by an Aulic villa and another building, possibly of a religious character, were being destroyed. Only the remains of the southern part of the palace have been saved. Excavated, consolidated and restored the remains of the first floor, the set has been musealized and the initial state of the conserved part has been represented and in a model and of what was supposed to be the complete building in an infographic reconstruction, all this after a complete interdisciplinary study.

The Hispanic archaeological heritage is still a source of great surprises at the beginning of the 21st century. The astonishment is that we are referring to an extensive site, of about 5 hectares built on a raised and stepped terrace between the right bank of the Túria river and the Barranc dels Clavills, only accessible from the western side, which is located just 16 km from the city of Valencia, approximately in the center of the third metropolitan area of Spain. It is a Visigothic city that is called to be a reference point for a historical stage that is still too invisible in our collective imagination.