Valencia was never known for its walls.

Unlike Ávila or even Albarracín, these walls don’t enclose the city, nor announce themselves in any showy form. Most of what once protected the city is hidden underground, crumbling between buildings, or so iconic that it's rarely seen as one piece of a much larger fortification system (including one of its most famous postcards, the Torres de Serranos). In fact, Valencia has had not one, but three walls, built across three vastly different eras.

The first belonged to Roman Valentia, founded in 138 BCE by consul Brutus (grandfather of *the *Brutus). The city grew along the Via Augusta (now Calle San Vicente Mártir), the ancient highway of the Iberian Peninsula, connecting it to the core of the Roman Empire. The city and its walls were destroyed in 75 B.C. by the troops of Pompey the Great (whose head would be gifted to Julius Caesar by Cleopatra years later).…