Today, the visitors who sit down on one of the stone benches in the Plaza de la Reina must just assume that this bustling city square has always looked like this. Why would they think otherwise? With so many people wandering about, the temporary markets and art stalls, the giant teddy bears and street entertainers looking to make a buck, it’s impossible to imagine the contemporary Plaza de la Reina as anything other than a big, pedestrianized nexus of local life. But that hasn’t been the case until relatively recently.
It’s hard to believe, but the photos in this article aren’t from some distant past. Before 2021, the Plaza de la Reina was heavily trafficked with cars, taxis, and buses. The broad, leisurely plaza we know today didn’t exist at all — there was a small green spot in the middle of the square, but otherwise people kept to narrow sidewalks around the edges. It was much the same in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento: primarily, it was a thoroughfare catering to the circulation of vehicles.
We can still remember when the plans were announced to pedestrianize these two central plazas. That sounded like a cute little plan, but we didn’t believe that it would actually happen. Even after the work on Plaza del Ayuntamiento had completed, we still couldn’t fully accept it. Taking a step into the the newly car-free square felt thrilling and almost illicit. Such a radical change to the city! Surely, they’d let this sink in for a decade or two, before pedestrianizing another plaza!
But no! Work on Plaza de la Reina began almost immediately. Of course, Valencia’s drivers were furious, and there were a lot of protests about the impact on traffic. But now that it’s done, we think that even the most pro-automobile Valencians would agree that the city center has never felt more alive. It’s so much more pleasant to walk around the city. The number of people (tourists and locals alike) milling about Reina and Ayuntamiento in the evening, is simply astonishing. Restricting vehicles from Valencia’s iconic center has truly improved the quality of life.
In this article, we’re showing some of the work that started in the spring of 2021, when the main battlegrounds were the Plaza de la Reina, the Plaza del Mercado and the Plaza de la Ciudad de Brujas (behind the Mercado Central). Naturally, the construction also had effects on many of the streets which lead to these plazas, such as Calle la Paz. During this same time frame, the government also endeavored to finish the long-delayed construction of the Metro Line 10. This project, which would connect Valencia’s main train station to Ruzafa and Natzaret, had started in 2011 but was put on a long hiatus.
The summer of 2021 was a fascinating period during which to wander around Valencia. So much construction meant that a lot of the city’s rich history was being unearthed. Several times, works had to be put on hold while an archaeological excavation team was called in, because they had found ruins while digging, which needed to be properly cleared before construction could continue.
One of the things they unearthed at the Plaza de la Reina were old tram tracks. That these tracks were still in place, hidden just underneath the pavement we walked across daily, was almost unbelievable to us. We did some research and learned that an old tram had begun running through Plaza de la Reina in 1876. How cool it would have been to see that! We kind of wished that, instead of pedestrianizing the plaza, they were bringing back the tram instead (like in Lisbon)!
Please enjoy these photos, which show a city in flux. They serve as a reminder that these places we love have dramatic histories and lives of their own, full of transformation and growth!
From our Travel Blog.
