5 amazing myths and legends in Valencia

Don’t miss this ankle-high abode with a teeny terracotta-tiled roof. Made by Alfonso Yuste Navarro, it leads to a garden where cats roam freely. It’s dedicated to the El Carmen cats of 1094. Legend goes that when El Cid conquered the city in that year he found as many cats as people.

Visiting Valencia Cathedral? Look out for a thousand-year-old withered arm. San Vicente Mártir was allegedly killed after refusing to denounce Christianity to the Romans in 304. Despite a tortuous death his left arm miraculously stayed in one piece, and it’s displayed here in a bronze cabinet.

There’s often a tour group outside this building being told that it is the narrowest in Europe. Sadly it’s not true. The 107-centimetre-wide façade is just that: a façade. It used to be that small, but since it was knocked through in the 1980s there are no world records here, just a load of fabulous hats by Sombreros Albero.

There’s a scaly surprise for visitors to the church on Plaça del Coŀlegi del Patriarca: an enormous stuffed crocodile coiled on the wall. Some say it’s the remains of a 13th-century dragon that lived in the River Túria. Others say it was sent to the church in the 1600s from the viceroy of Peru

The first registered case of poltergeist in Spain was in Valencia. Bangs and loud noises coming from number 7 (now 5) terrorised the neighbours. So much so that a team of 40 officers cordoned off the area and started an investigation. They found nothing. Must have been a poltergeist, right?