VALENCIA, a seaport of Spain, for merly capital of the kingdom, and now of the province of the same name; on the shores of the Mediterranean; 3 miles from the mouth of the Guadalaviar and 200 miles S. W. of Barcelona. In the Huerta ("garden") surrounding the city carob, citron, orange, palm, and mul berry grow in wild luxuriance. The old picturesque battlemented walls, erected by Pedro IV. in 1356, were removed in 1871; and while, in the old quarters, the houses are closely packed and gloomy looking, well suited to keep out the heat, those recently erected are gaily colored and furnished with courts freshened with flowers and cooled by fountains. Valencia is the see of an archbishop, and its cathedral, which was commenced in 1262, classical in the interior, and Gothic on the exterior, is 350 feet long. The church of the Colegio de Corpus is quite a museum of pictures by Ribalta. The picture gallery contains chiefly the pro ductions of the Valencian school (Juanes, the Ribaltas, Ribera, etc.). The university has a library of over 50,000 volumes. The custom house, dating from
1758, is now a cigar factory. Silk spin ning and weaving are extensively carried on; there are also manufactures of cloths, hats, glass, linen, leather, cigars, and Valencia tiles for flooring. The ex ports are mainly grain, silk, rice and fruits. Pop. about 245,000. Valencia, or Valentia del Cid, dating from the 2d cen tury B. C., was destroyed by Pompey, taken by the Goths A. D. 413, by the Moors in '715, and by the Cid in 1094. The union of Ferdinand and Isabella brought it under the Castilian crown_ Suchet captured the city in 1812. The old kingdom of Valencia, now subdivided into the three modern provinces of Va lencia, Alicante and Castellon de la Plana, comprises a tract of country in the E. of Spain, washed by the Medi terranean, and extending from Catalonia to Murcia. It has a hot but fine cli mate, a fertile soil, mineral wealth and nany industries.