Almudín de Valencia

This guide to the Almudin in Valencia starts with a riddle: how a cup holding barely four and a half litres, the almud, gave its name to one of the city's grandest civic halls. It traces the building's rammed-earth walls, packed by laborers rather than carved from costly stone, with dressed corners and arches where sacks of grain were once weighed. Construction began around thirteen oh seven, and for roughly three hundred years the center stood open to the sky before masons finally closed it over. Look up at the arcades around you as you walk the old grain hall.