On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Christopher Mathews
In 2017, the long-running BBC television show “Doctor Who” featured an episode called “Smile,” set on a newly-colonized but strangely deserted planet. The mystery to be solved by the Doctor and his companion, Bill Potts, was simple but sinister: what happened to the colonists? For me, though, the mystery was: where did they film that gorgeous architecture?
The answer turned out to be the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (the City of Arts and Sciences), in Valencia, Spain. Since then, I’d been jones’ing for a chance to see it in person – and this year, I took myself there for my birthday. Here are a few photos from that visit.
The first of the City buildings to be completed, in 1998, L’Hemisfèric houses an IMAX theatre/planetarium and a huge lobby area that can be used for meetings and special events. It’s also really pretty at night.
The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Queen Sofía Palace of the Arts) was the last City structure to be completed, in 2005. More than 75 meters (about 250 ft) tall, it is the tallest opera house in the world, beating the iconic Sydney Opera House by about 10 meters.
A night time view of the Palace. It’s a huge structure, and difficult to do justice. But with 40,000 square meters (almost 431,000 sq ft) of floor space divided between four concert halls, it’s enormous.
The Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (Prince Filipe Museum of Sciences) is the backbone of the City, in more ways than one. It was designed to evoke the skeleton of a giant beast, and it is the largest exhibition hall in Spain. It presently hosts interactive exhibits on space travel, genetics, and – because why not? – Pixar animation. You can see L’Hemisfèric and the Palace in the background.
A closer look at the structure of the science museum. Among other things, the building hosts a basketball arena on the ground floor.
The Assut de l’Or (Dam of Gold) bridge and L’Àgora. The bridge, known locally as the Harp Bridge, consists of 29 parallel cables, two carriageways of three lanes each for cars and one additional lane for a tramway, and a central walkway for pedestrian and cycle traffic. The Agora hosts spaces for concerts, meetings, exhibitions, and a small interactive classroom space for children.
The Harp and the Agora at night.
One more night shot, with L’Hemisfèric, the Museum, the Harp Bridge, and the Agora all sharing the limelight. Between my first day, scouting out places (in the rain!) that I wanted to photograph, and the second day when the weather was clear, I walked over 30 km (about 20 mi). It was painful, and it was worth it. Hope you like the pictures!
HinTN
Beautiful!!! Did you engage with any city leadership to ask how they made the decision to invest so heavily in such great work and how they sold these projects to taxpayers?
Baud
Fascinating. Never new about Valencia. Thank you.
Auntie Anne
Your pictures are gorgeous. I am going to have to do some research about the City of Arts and Sciences because I am curious as to how and why it exists. Thanks for stretching my world a bit today.
Matt McIrvin
I think it appeared in “Westworld” too. It’s a popular science-fiction location for obvious reasons. There’s also a large aquarium in the area, with most of the structure underground.
Baud
@Baud:
New = knew
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I new that.
Chris T.
Wow, that’s a really magnificent cable-stayed bridge. (It has its own Wikipedia page, but that one isn’t linked-to from the cable-stayed bridge main page, which seems like a serious omission to me…)
J.
Wow! Great photos! Now I want to go!
Argiope
That does it. Balloon Juice meetup for August 12, 2026 is in Valencia, not Reykjavik. I’ll bring the green balloons. Thanks for settling it for us, Chris–amazing photos!
Trivia Man
Sounds like a MediumCool topic. What location did you see on screen that captivated you so much you just had to go see it in person? Or wish you could. White cliffs of Dover, Ewok forest, Staircase of Giants, Hagia Sofia … or hundreds more.
Albatrossity
Absolutely gorgeous! Thank you!
Christopher Mathews
@HinTN: No, I just went there. :)
Betty
Wow! My nephew and his family moved to Valencia a few years ago. They haven’t mentioned these treasures yet. I have to ask him about them.
Christopher Mathews
@Argiope: You’d miss the eclipse in Iceland, though. You could still see it in Spain, but there will be another there in August of 2027, if you can wait a bit. ;)
Christopher Mathews
@Trivia Man: Quite a lot of my recent travels have been being dictated by the entertainment industry. Casablanca, Hogwarts, Chernobyl, Bastogne, Dracula’s Castle, Luxor, Budapest …
stinger
Amazing architecture! Lovely photographs!
Trivia Man
@Christopher Mathews: Pics? Sounds like a recurring series! Those are all enticing locations.
stinger
@Trivia Man:
Friends of mine went to New Zealand basically to see the Shire and Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings.
bjacques
@Matt McIrvin: and a Dr. Who episode!
sab
Eclipse in Iceland in my lifetime. That would tick off about five items on my bucket list. Iceland, eclipse, northern lights, geysers, puffins, best wool sweaters.
sab
I wonder how much conversational Icelandic I can learn in two years.
Christopher Mathews
@sab: It’s probably not worth the effort. There are no regional dialects in Iceland (except perhaps for a subtle shift in one letter as spoken by the south and the north), and so Icelanders have no ear for accents: you either nail the word precisely, or it’s just noise. Fortunately, almost the entire population speaks excellent English, so there’s little need.
You’re most likely to run into trouble when you need to go somewhere and can’t pronounce the Icelandic name, because your shared proficiency in English won’t help. But even so, you can muddle through fairly easily.
Baud
@sab:
Pretty sure they all speak English as a second language.
sab
@Baud: I got burned by that assumption in the Netherlands in my distant youth.
sab
@Christopher Mathews: So if I learn to speak some Icelandic badly it is as if I speak no Icelandic at all?
ETA I did always want to read the various Eddas in the original. So not time wasted.
cope
What beautiful structures, thanks for showing them to us.
Steve from Mendocino
Very nice photos. Composition, light, edit. A pleasure.
sab
@Steve from Mendocino: Chris Mathews (he of the one not two t’s) always does excellent photography. Odd to see him outside of Iceland.
pieceofpeace
Yes, to my eyes your long walk was worth the sights you posted here. What a grand collection of design.
The opera house, designed for music enjoyment, does remind me of Sydney’s, although at first picture I briefly considered a cruise ship.
Thank you.
arrieve
How have I never heard of this before? Stunning architecture, and architectural photography!
Kayla Rudbek
Mr. Rudbek is looking at Spain with a bike tour for either the 2026 or 2027 eclipse. He also sent me a link to the Cunard website for the 2026 eclipse although that would be much more my speed than his (he gets very antsy when he’s on a boat for longer than a few hours).
chbnna
Fantastic photos and architecture. The architect for that project is Santiago Calatrava, known for his futuristic designs. He designed the Milwaukee Art Museum too: https://mam.org/ I found this story on NPR talking about the corruption and debt incurred to get the projects done. It doesn’t sound much different than how similar projects get funded here in the US: https://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170561273/how-a-spanish-city-went-boom-then-bust
way2blue
Gorgeous buildings. Gorgeous photos. Thanks. Would love to see some of their insides too. Must be mind bending as well. And now I need to track down that ‘Smile’ episode of Dr Who…
Ruckus
@sab:
I had no problem in the Netherlands back in the 70s.
Was standing in line in a post office there once, with a buddy, in 1972, hoping to find someone who spoke english so we could get directions. The woman who worked there heard us speaking english and stopped all transactions and asked us what we needed. We asked for directions to get to the town we could not find and a man in line offered us a ride. One of the most pleasant places I’ve ever visited. He took us right to where we wanted to go. I really enjoyed Europe. Well not Naples, Italy. Two guys pulled switch blades on 6 of us as we walked down a street, trying to rob us. We discussed the concept that there were six of us and 2 of them, so they should decide who they were going to stab so that the other 4 of us could beat them senseless. They closed their knives and walked away. That did not much improve my opinion of Naples. Some, but not much.
Miss Bianca
@Trivia Man: New Zealand (LOTR)
BigJimSlade
Great pictures! Such a neat place. I’ve seen pictures pop up in my Flickr extension for Chrome (it brings up a flickr picture for each new tab/window). I had to go to google maps to figure out the layout – they really went all-in on the helmet or half-buried football sticking out of the ground look, lol. But I’m not insulting it at all – I think it’s wonderful.
Ruckus
@Kayla Rudbek:
he gets very antsy when he’s on a boat for longer than a few hours
As a past member of the USN, while I never got antsy, I fully understand, a number of people do end up there. We crossed the Atlantic 6 times, once in a storm with 50 foot waves, And I’ve been far above the Arctic Circle and almost to the equator, so I’ve got a lot of miles on a ship, some of them even being fun. I think that was 12 miles to be exact…..
Onkel Fritze
@Matt McIrvin: The aquarium is right next to it. It’s spectacular, best I’ve ever been to.
Dan B
@chbnna: Calatrava also designed the transit center* at the World Trade Center.
*It has a name I don’t recall.