Description of the attraction
The Archaeological Museum of La Almoina is a huge museum in Valencia, which displays various artifacts discovered during the large-scale archaeological excavations in the Plaza de Almoina, carried out in 1985-2005. The museum, opened in 2007, is located on the square of the same name in the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral and Plaza de la Reina. It is a huge pit with a glass roof, looking through which you can see the ruins of an ancient city, monumental buildings and entire ancient streets.
Valencia was founded in the 2nd century BC. Italian soldiers - from this period to the present day, fragments of a temple, a barn, a thermal bath (some of the oldest in the world) have survived, as well as several ritual objects that can be seen today in the underground expositions of the museum. In 75 BC. Valencia was destroyed, and only a century later the city was revived - the ruins of another temple, a fountain, fragments of the basilica and part of the forum gallery, which are part of the exposition of the Ancient Roman era, belong to this period. Early Christianity is represented in the museum by a beautiful baptistery, a church apse and several tombstones. A separate exposition of the museum is dedicated to the Arab period of the city's history - here you can see Islamic artifacts from the era of the Alcazar's existence, including a water wheel, a characteristic Muslim courtyard with a pool and part of the fortifications. One of the most significant collections in the museum is the collection of decorated pottery dating back to the 13-14th centuries - the period when Valencia was conquered by Christians from the Moors.
The Almoyna Museum was designed by the Spanish architect Jose Maria Herrera Garcia and today it invites visitors to take a walk in time, going back two thousand years and gradually returning to modernity.
