Valencia's cup runneth over

Spanish town is known for harboring the Holy Grail and the next America's Cup

Sunday, October 30, 2005

VALENCIA, Spain -- For hundreds of years this city on the Mediterranean has been known for oranges, ceramics, a refreshing drink called horchata and as the birthplace of the saffron-colored rice, seafood and meat dish called paella.

In addition, despite recent attempts to redefine the Holy Grail, the Valencia cathedral has long been famous among the faithful as the repository of the world's most famous cup. This was the chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper, long sought by various knights and emperors, and perhaps even by Indiana Jones.

Today Valencianos are excited about quite a different cup -- the next running of the America's Cup yacht races -- the first time the event has been held in Europe. That cup, too, is currently on public display in Valencia, in a special booth at the America's Cup headquarters down at the waterfront.

Several preliminary races have been going on this year both here and at a few other places in Europe. These will continue until the windy waters off Valencia host the final contest in June 2007.

Both of Valencia's cups perhaps bear some background explanation.

The simple agate relic known here as the Holy Grail or Holy Chalice has been resident off and on in Valencia ever since St. Laurence rescued it in the third century during Emperor Valerian's Christian persecution in Rome. With the blessing of Pope Sixtus II, St. Laurence sent it from Rome to his family in Spain for safekeeping. Prior to the persecution, the cup was used by the first popes to celebrate Mass in the Holy City.

The authenticity of the chalice recently gained greater academic respect after scholar, Janice Bennett, of Littleton, Colo., researched its complicated history and then wrote a book entitled "St. Laurence and the Holy Grail, the Story of the Holy Chalice of Valencia" (Ignatius Press, 2004).

Not surprisingly, Ms. Bennett says that the contention in "The Da Vinci Code," the current best-selling thriller (and forthcoming film) that the term Holy Grail refers to a person -- Mary Magdalene -- is "absurd."

Yachties are familiar with the relatively recent history of the America's Cup, an international sailing race that began in 1851. It was then regularly won by members of the New York Yacht Club in races perennially conducted in Long Island Sound.

A 132-year-long American domination was finally broken in 1983, when an Australian team took the cup. Since then the races have been conducted in waters adjacent to the lands of its winners.

In recent years, the contest has sometimes been called facetiously the "Holy Grail of Yachting."

In 2003, the latest America's Cup race was hosted by New Zealand. There the cup was won by a crew that had no ocean of its own -- the team from Switzerland. So the race's venue has been moved to Europe for the first time in the history of the contest, and the final events will be held in Valencia in 2007.

Valencia was chosen as the host city partly because of its excellent weather and the reliable winds that whip over the Mediterranean. Cup organizers have now taken up a large portion of the Valencia waterfront for their headquarters, naming it the America's Cup Park, and many have come to view the shiny, if rather ugly, trophy.

To the 800,000 Valencianos, residents of Spain's third largest city (after Madrid and Barcelona), it seems a logical extension of the cultural renaissance that has been continuing in the city for the past several years.

Reliably sunny Valencia, and the surrounding villages and beaches, have always been popular with foreign travelers, especially in the winter. A favorite of the British and sun-seekers from Northern Europe, the city has recently been receiving more American and Canadian vacationers, apparently drawn there to some extent by cup fever.

Within Spain, Valencia has a "can-do" reputation. When city leaders finally got tired of the annual flooding along the winding Turia River, which bisected the metropolis, they managed to divert the waters to an entirely new course out of town. Then they rejected more obvious ideas like turning the former river bed into a nifty highway, choosing instead to develop it into a variety of interesting parks, gardens and architectural civic projects.

Some proud citizens now refer to the new five-mile long section as the "River of Culture."

In some areas, this gives the city a rather strange look, with several massive, ancient bridges spanning narrow, green valleys, baseball diamonds and tennis courts, along a meandering green belt populated by bicyclists, strollers and citizens enjoying themselves. As time has gone on, some dramatic public architectural projects have also become a reality where the waters of the Turia once flowed -- and overflowed.

The old riverbed in the modern part of town is dominated by a gleaming civic complex called the City of Arts and Sciences. It includes the dramatic new science museum, whose principal exhibit is certainly the building itself, which looks rather like a fish skeleton. Lined up beside it is the IMAX theater and planetarium, called "L'Hemisferic," which reminds some of an overturned boat.

Next door to that, the new opera house, which has been compared to a gigantic eyeball, just opened its lids for the first time. Other landmarks installed in the complex include a large Oceanographic Center, which has terrific displays but a bewildering layout.

The City of Arts and Sciences was designed by Santiago Calatrava, a native Valencian, who also designed major works in New York, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and other cities in the United States and Europe. (An exhibit of his sculpture and architectural models has opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and will be on display through March 5.)

Although Valencia was heavily damaged in the Spanish Civil War, the old quarter also attracts many visitors to its baroque buildings and narrow, winding streets.

Besides the cathedral -- built on the ruins of a Moorish mosque, which was itself built on the ruins of a Roman temple -- several buildings, towers, museums and monuments of previous centuries have been restored and are proudly shown to visitors.

In one quiet square, a slim structure has been identified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the narrowest house in the world.

Just out of town, visitors find themselves sailing much calmer waters in the Albufera, a lake and bird sanctuary, now a national park. Further afield in the Province of Valencia are the old cities of Denia and Gandia, both of which boast ancient castles to explore. Gandia is known as the home town of the prodigious Borgia family, which produced both popes and poisoners in the 15th century.

Valencianos, who look back on at least two millennia of saints and sinners, can create public buildings that look like sculptures, and can even move a river if they want to. So they will probably take both the Holy Grail and the "Holy Grail of Yachting" in stride.

RECOMMENDED HOTELS
Valencia has more than 100 hotels and other places for visitor accommodations. Here are a few leaders:
Melia Valencia Palace, Paseo de la Alameda 32; http://www.solmelia.com/. From $108.
Astoria Palace Hotel, Plaza Rodrigo Botet 5; http://www.hotelastoriapalace.com/. From $123.
AC Hotel Valencia, Avda. de Francia 67; http://www.ac-hotels.com/. From $110.
Valencia Center, Avda. de Francia 33; http://www.hotelescenter.es/. From $65.

RESTAURANTS
La Sucursal (in the Museum of Modern Art), Guillem de Castro 118. Meals approximately $60 to $90.
Bamboo Restaurant, Colon Market, Jorge Juan 191; http://www.elaltocatering.com/. Meals approximately $32 to $60.
Les Graelles (several types of paella), Arquitecto Mora 2. Meals approximately $43 to $60.
Seu Xerea, Conde de Almodovar 4. Meals approximately $43 to $60.
Tapelia (specializing in tapas), Avda. De Francia 27. Meals approximately $30 to $36.
Submarino (in the aquarium complex), Junta de Murs I Valls. Meals approximately $30 to $60.
Orchata Daniel (snacks and horchata drinks only), Avda. De la Horchata 41; http://www.horchateria-daniel.es/.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Tourist Office of Spain, http://www.tourspain.es/. 212-265-8822
Valencia Tourism and Convention Bureau, http://www.turisvalencia.es/.