The market is set in the ‘Primer Ensanche’, which was first area of Valencia to be carefully developed during the nineteenth century. The area now forms the very heart of Valencia and is a busy commercial zone. The market building is located between the streets of Cirilo Amorós, Conde Salvatierra, Martínez Ferrando, and Jorge Juan. The growing number of people living in the area at the start of the twentieth century created the need for a public market. The city council responded by setting aside some 4,337 square metres of land on the site of the former Marqués de Campo gas factory, and created a new street called Blanquells (now Martínez Ferrando).

The project was led by the municipal architect Francisco Mora, who was influenced by the modernist Catalan school of Doménech i Montaner, Puig, and Cadafalch. Mora envisaged a large longitudinal space comprising three hall sections with metal rafters, closed off at the ends with brick and stone facades, and triumphal arches with multi-coloured ornamentation. Enclosing walls formed by a stone base were covered with artistic ironwork and the building’s rectangular shape measured 100 x 47 metres with sloping corners. The building was opened on Christmas Eve 1916 to great public acclaim.

[Via mercadocolon.es website]