Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias
Futurist cultural complex of curved white shells clad in ceramic mosaic, spanning a museum, opera house and aquarium.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia centers on the Palau de les Arts opera house and the winter of 2013, when its famous white shell began shedding trencadis, the broken-tile mosaic that once gave the roof its shimmer. You'll hear from the city's own economy chief, who compared the building to a stranded ship, and from the engineers who found the glue failing across most of the surface. The guide follows the crew brought in with picks and a safety net to strip tiles from the sunniest wall. Look up at what covers the dome today, and consider what it took to get it back there.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Palacio de Las Artes Reina Sofía
Curved white opera house shaped like a peeling shell, rising from a riverbed drowned by flood.
L'Àgora
Futurist covered plaza by Santiago Calatrava, once a tennis arena, now a cultural center.
El Umbracle
Landscaped walkway of alternating white arches over a hidden car park, lined with open-air sculptures.
Palacio de la Música
Concert hall whose two great auditoriums went dark for years after a ceiling collapsed onto the empty seats.
Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe
Whale-shaped science museum of glass and concrete ribs on a former riverbed, with three floors of interactive exhibits.
Hemisfèric
Eye-shaped IMAX cinema and planetarium with an aluminum shutter that opens over a reflecting pool.