Photography: Eva MáñezWe begin our visit from above, in Sagunt, in that rectangular Plaça Major that extends to the foot of the church of Santa María.We are in the historic center of the town and to go through it is to understand at first glance how a city is built with what it inherits from the civilizations that have inhabited it.Souks converted into palaces for nobles, a Jewish quarter on the right hand side, a Roman theater a little further up, and an Andalusian castle on top of the hill.And it is that the whole world has passed through Sagunt, Saguntum or Arse: Iberians, Hannibal with his hosts, Romans, Visigoths, Muslims, Jews, Christians and, now, you are about to do it yourself.These are the eight plans that we propose to start getting to know her.The climb to the top of the hill on which this castle sits requires legs and following Carrer del Castell.The reward for such an effort, especially during the summer months, is well worth it and comes in the form of views over the Camp de Morvedre region, with the Mediterranean Sea in the background.Declared a National Monument in 1931, to enter the castle is to enter an 11th-century Andalusian fortress almost a kilometer long.However, the Iberians had already passed through here, Hannibal and his armies had done their thing back in 218 BC, the Romans had enjoyed the glory of their empire, later the Christians did the same and, more recently, even French engineers introduced changes during the War of Independence.The result is a visible miscellany of constructions and remains of all the cultures that at some point settled here and left their mark on this architectural complex.Do not expect great signage or many explanations, it is more a totum revolutum of stones, walls and views.The space, which is free to visit, is divided into seven squares, among which the Plaza de Armas stands out, where vestiges of what was the Roman forum can be seen, and the Plaza de San Fernando, with the Epigraphic Antiquarium, a building in which One of the richest epigraphic collections on the peninsula is preserved, with chisel-carved tombstones and commemorative inscriptions, both Latin and Hebrew.Tiberius ruled, in the 1st century AD, when the construction of this theater was completed on the foot of the mountain on which the castle stands.Sagunto was Saguntum and the Romans, who dominated the world, also needed places for recreation.More than 2,000 years later, that original theater can be sensed in the vomitories and one must imagine it under the controversial restoration that took place in the early 1990s. Despite its declaration as a National Monument in 1986, it had centuries into oblivion and there are those who define the rehabilitation works as the construction of a new theater on the ruins of the authentic one.It gained in comfort and allowed the theatrical use of the building to be recovered, but history and essence were sacrificed.Currently, the semicircular grandstand has a capacity for around 4,000 people and its stage is once again a place devoted to entertainment.Particularly noteworthy is Sagunt a Escena, the theater, music and dance festival that it hosts during the summer months.Limited between Carrer del Castell to the east and Teatre Romà to the west, the alleys that make up the Sagunt Jewish quarter preserve their 16th-century layout practically intact.Namely, an entrance that is made through a stone arch, the Portalet de la Sang, which gives access to Carrer Sang Vella, the main thoroughfare of the Jewish quarter and from which the rest of the random network of cobbled floors and naturally steep.All flanked by little houses and dotted with charming corners made from pots, flowers and plants.By simply walking through its streets you can observe elements of an ancient way of life that coexist with the current one.This is the case, for example, of the hole in the right jamb of the door at number 38 on Carrer del Castell.The cylinder with the mezuzah (parchment containing two verses of the Torah) was placed there.Now, if there is a place that deserves a stop along the way in the Jewish quarter, it is the Casa dels Berenguer.Located at number 17 Carrer del Sagrari, it is a Renaissance palace, the former home of this family of French descent who helped King Jaume I with the reconquest of Valencia.Today it is the city's Visitor Reception and Interpretation Center and inside it we can see a micvé, or Jewish ritual bath, in the basement of a vaulted room, which is accessed via a stairway with the statutory two sections seven steps each.In this location, and with the naked eye from the street, we can also see the remains of a wall from the Temple of Diana.Crowning the Jewish quarter, as a way of having an overview of what had been an aljama since the 13th century, but without belonging to it, we find Calvary.Here, the hermitage of Santísimo Cristo offers one of the best views of the city.It was in 1900 when the Basque businessmen Ramón de la Sota and Eduardo Aznar formed the Sierra Menera Mining Company and chose the Port of Sagunt as the place from which to deliver the mineral they extracted from the Ojos Negros mine in Teruel by sea.In 1917 would come the creation of the Compañía Siderúrgica del Mediterráneo, with which this urban center would cease to be only the starting point of the raw material to become the place where iron and steel were manufactured.Furnaces and workshops were built, and the need for labor attracted engineers and workers.A city was beginning to be built around this industry, which would experience boom years until 1984, when the steel industry had to close when the Industrial Reconversion Decree-Law was applied.The truth is that, although that past already sounds like something distant to us, it is impossible to abstract from it.It is perceived when seeing Blast Furnace number 2, a robust metal tower over 60 meters high, which in its day was dedicated to the production of steel.Also when running into the General Workshops warehouses (Hornos Altos, 49A) that, with a nice industrial aesthetic, but still in need of some other remodeling.It is expected that in the future they will be used for cultural activities.Also when entering Avinguda 9 d'Octubre.And it is that this street is a succession of buildings that take us directly to that time.Proof of this is the Ciudad Jardín-La Gerencia (number 7), a micro-world that was erected isolated from the rest of the town to house Basque engineers in houses with an architecture more typical of their land than of the Mediterranean.Today you can see from the outside the building of the old offices of the Management, some of the houses that were rehabilitated and walk through the rest of the enclosure that is in a state of abandonment, which makes us oscillate between grief and fascination. that causes decay.Right next door, at number 7A, is the old commissary in ruins;and in 5, the casino -currently under construction-.At number 1 of the avenue, the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Begoña awaits us, in neo-baroque style and built in the image and likeness of the Basilica of Begoña in Bilbao.A little further inland from the Port, on Carrer Casas de la Compañía, is the working-class neighborhood.It began to see the light around 1917 and its construction ended in 1921 with a good handful of low houses, with gabled roofs and white facades, equipped with a small garden.One might think that among so many archaeological and iron and steel remains, Sagunt and Port de Sagunt would have nothing else to surprise them with.Wherever we go, the recurring appearance of large murals gives us a clue to our mistake, because here the “open-air museum” tagline is a reality.The responsible?The more than 30 murals and graffiti that display art and creativity on building facades, school walls, the Civil Guard barracks, sports facilities and even bus lines.There are realistic, abstract, either in color or black and white, with a social message to make us think or with a merely decorative purpose.Together they shape the Urban Art Route, the result of Més que Murs, the festival that the town council has been organizing since 2016.The initiative, which sought to channel the talent and concerns of a generation interested in graffiti, has served to give visibility to the works of local artists and attract national and international creators to Sagunt and the Port.Names such as the Valencian Barbiturikills, the Argentinian Hyuro, the Catalan Elisa Capdevila or Sex, the child of the paintings, are just some of those who have been leaving bits of their art in this corner of the Valencian coast.The route can be covered in its entirety using this map of the Town Hall on Google Maps.When we talk about Grau Vell, we talk about the old port of Sagunt.So old that Sagunt was not Sagunt, but Arse, and those who inhabited it were the Iberians, who had been using it for their commercial activity since the 5th century BC, which consisted of exporting wine.At present, getting to Grau Vell involves taking the car, following Altos Hornos Avenue for about four minutes, paying attention to the directions that appear along the way, crossing an unattractive industrial estate and trusting that, in this case, the destination is better than the journey.Spoiler alert: it is.Upon reaching Grau Vell, a small uncrowded beach awaits us, a fort with its 15th-century coastal watchtower and 18th-century warehouses, which have just been restored.Now, in summer, the complex can be visited on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10:00 and 14:00.Next to the fort a district was built consisting of a handful of small houses along a street and a small square, with the hermitage of the Virgen del Buen Suceso.Nothing more.Neither a bar nor a souvenir shop.The quiet and relaxed life was this.They say that his neighbors are almost family because most descend from a policeman who moved here at the beginning of the 20th century with his daughter.The Herráiz.That double r, difficult to pronounce for the people of the area, caused him to be called the king and her, the queen.Her name was María Herráiz and she ended up being mayor of the district and managed to keep the Grau Vell free from the coast law and the houses did not collapse.Here time has stopped: it is not possible to build more or touch the existing ones.The story is told to us by Celia Peris, born in Sagunto and a guide from the Valencia Community, who also tells us about some anti-aircraft batteries from the Civil War that are north of the fort, a ten-minute walk away following the little path that leaves the road and runs parallel to the coast.Located next to a busy promenade -or, rather, the promenade located next to it-, the 1,300 meters of fine golden sand of the Port de Sagunt beach are a continuous scene of walks along the shore.Cooling off comes later, when submerging in crystal clear and clean waters, which on green flag days appear like an infinite sheet that is lost on the horizon.Nothing is missing on this urban beach: from those beach bars where the beer is always very cold and the music is a little loud, to sunbed and umbrella rental services, passing through sunsets of pink skies, white dunes and cobalt blue sea cut out against its characteristic pontoon.Almardá, Corinto and Malvarrosa are the other beach options offered by the municipality, but getting to them requires the use of a car.About sitting at a good table, at any time of the day, they know a lot around here.The days begin with breakfast at the 'Forn de la Melica' (Castell, 1).Coffee and, for example, toast fresh from the oven and topped with avocado, tomato and fresh cheese.Bread to go?Of course, especially if we discover that in this bakery they have been in business since 1924, they maintain the ways of making, the tradition and even some of the ingredients of the first generations.In addition, they have been making Roman bread for 25 years.Maridesa, the owner, began to prepare it as a result of a school activity of one of her children.It premiered with oregano, onion and mustard, and olives and rosemary oil.Later, each year she would add some more: rosemary and thyme, garlic and parsley, turmeric and coriander... Maridesa explains that there is no complete recipe that has survived to this day, but that she works by combining the flours, the ingredients and the spices to those that the Romans had access to when they expanded throughout the world and giving them geometric shapes and elements of nature, which was what they used to do.In addition, in September, although she hopes to extend it to other times of the year, she also prepares Jewish bread (matza) based on buckwheat, chickpea and rice flour;Haman ears, stuffed with fig jam and chopped walnuts, baked instead of fried.The next thing she is preparing is challah.Rice, in any of its forms, is eaten at 'Tasca Bacco' (Illa de la Toja, s/n), next to the beach.They have been working on feeding us well for around 16 years.Very well.From his kitchen you can see proposals such as rice with shrimp, monkfish and artichokes, or the star of the menu: the a banda.It does not occur to them to remove it because there is always someone who claims it.They also like, and a lot, the broths, especially Javier Perelló, who tells us that, in addition to the menu of the day and a fixed menu in which there is no lack of meat or fish, on Friday and Saturday nights they incorporate some suggestions based on what you find on the market.All proximity and seasonal.Afternoons are for horchata or ice cream.Or both.Why not?The first is taken at the 'Horchatería El Paseo' (Passeig Marítim, 5), where it is prepared by hand and with natural ingredients, and is served liquid or granita.There are those who accompany it with their fartons, made on the day and with the possibility of trying them filled with cream or chocolate.The ice creams, for their part, await us at the 'Véneta Gelato Italiano' ice cream parlor (Mediterrani, 105), where they never tire of accumulating national and international awards.One of those responsible?Its taste of grandma's cookie.Leaving empty in a destination like this is not considered as an option.That is why we return to the origin, we return to Sagunt, to visit 'Las Delicias del Duc' (Castell, 7), a gourmet shop specializing in cheeses and artisan products.Cheeses from Acehúche, Morella, Cádiz..., sausages, honeys, pâtés;tarongino wine, made with blood orange, which is identified by its characteristic red color and whose cultivation fields are precisely in Sagunt;rum cream with horchata from El Faro del Delta, or the Licor Cremaet Socarrat.Come in and help yourself.Or sit on your terrace and get ready to be happy.The newsletter for lovers of travel and good food