Valencia Free Tour: The Silk Road

We’ll start at the Market Square, where we’ll learn about the origins of silk during the Muslim era, the arrival of the mulberry tree and the silkworm, and the boom in Valencian trade during the Golden Age.

We’ll visit the Silk Exchange, a symbol of the city’s economic power and the setting for the major trade negotiations that connected Valencia with Genoa, Mallorca, Barcelona, and Sicily.

We’ll stroll through the streets of the old artisan neighborhoods, where master velvet makers and dyers once lived. We’ll continue on to the Plaza del Tossal and the remains of the medieval city wall to learn about the tax system and the control of goods entering and leaving the city.

The tour will also take us to the Towers of Quart, one of the main gateways to Valencia, from where silk began its journey to Castile to be transformed into the luxurious fabrics worn by the nobility.

We’ll end at the Plaza de la Virgen, where we’ll learn how religion, guilds, and political power were all part of a single identity. Because silk didn’t just make Valencia rich—it also left a mark that can still be discovered in its streets today.