The 5 best museums for ancient history in Valencia

In the second largest art gallery in Spain, grand Gothic rooms present works from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Get close enough to see the craquelure of gilded religious art from the 1400s, and visit the room dedicated to Sorolla where paintings seem to radiate that golden Valencian sun.

Found in a quiet square behind the cathedral, this subterranean museum is a gift for those who want to learn about the roots of Valencia. Head downstairs and walk through a hidden network of streets dating back to the Roman and Moorish era, the original footpaths of the ancient city. Free entry on Sundays.

This little-known relic was a funeral chapel linked to the cathedral, and holds the remains of a Valencian Bishop. Inside the dark and musty room it’s usually empty, the deathly silence broken only by haunting music. Approach the bishop’s bones and get goose bumps; with the place to yourself it’s genuinely moving.

Dinosaurs hide amongst the flowerbeds of Jardins de Vivers – contained within this museum, of course. Valencian Rodrigo Botet was exiled for being a Carlista and reinvented himself as an engineer in Buenos Aires. He made a fortune and gifted this collection to Valencia – a novel way to get back in the city’s good books.

Found within the bigger L’ETNO museum, this huge exhibition is a properly jaw-dropping collection of bones, artefacts and pots, dating from the Lower Paleolithic Age to the Romans. Discover barnacle-covered amphoras and human skulls that bear the bite marks of big cats, all found within the Valencian community.