Old town Valencia and street-art

On leaving the metro from the airport we decided to trundle our suitcases through the Barrio Carmen, the older residential part of central Valencia, taking in the warm evening air. My impression was of a well lived in and slightly scruffy old quarter and down every other alley-way we caught a glimpse of a plot of land, empty and waiting to be build on.

Like gaps in a smile the sites seemed to be where some old building had been demolished and was now waiting for a shiny new apartment block to take its place. Unlike some other European cities where the old quarter would be polished and protected, the Valencians seemed to be quite relaxed about their heritage. Here what we would think of as old and picturesque doesn't necessarily seem to be considered as better.


Around each plot there was a cement wall, usually covered by some great street-art. Interestingly I didn't see much of the 'scribble' style tagging, nor even street-art in undesignated places - it seemed that the street-artists in this part of Valencia are quite respectful of their surroundings, or perhaps they risk too much disapproval from the community. But around the building sites was really creative stuff, look at the samples below - some sleeping giants;


The aliens have landed;

A couple of nice garages, perhaps inspired by the oranges for which Valencia is famous ?


I saw this painted doorway down the same alleyway as the more traditional tiled one;


and even graffiti artists show their devotion to the local neighbourhood saints - the faithful are paying their last respects to the dead saint - I can't imagine this being a subject of street-art in the UK, can you?



And if you'd like to see some more, take a look at my Valencia street-art photos and the Valencia street-art group on Flickr.