Las Fallas — the insane citywide celebration at the end of winter — is such a huge part of Valencian life that it has its own museum. If you’re not going to have the chance to experience Fallas, this museum offers a great way to get a sense of the festival’s scale and insanity.

Source: Fallas.com

The museum takes visitors through the history of the Fallas, from 1934 onward. For each year, you’ll see the prize-winning ninots (satirical figures), the official poster, photographs of the winning Fallas monuments (which are burnt to the ground on March 19th), and painted portraits of the guapísima Falleras. There is a lot of information about how the Fallas characters are made, as well as a large model reconstruction of a mascletà square.

Most of the enjoyment to be had in the museum comes from the ninots. These are frequently hilarious (and dirty), and properly flaunt the outrageousness and fun that festival is all about.

All of the information in the museum is in Castellan and Valencian, but don’t let that put you off — you won’t need to read a lot, because it’s mostly just the figures and pictures.

The Museum’s Official Page
Plaza de Monteolivete, 4
Location on our Valencia Map

Opening Hours:
   Tuesday - Saturday: 10 - 14, and 16:30 - 20:30
   Sundays & Holidays: 10 - 15

Last night, more than 750 monuments were burned during La Cremà — the fiery, official end to the Fallas celebrations.

Convento Jerusalén’s Monument in Flames

We went to see the monument of Convento Jerusalén be burned to the ground. It was amazing. Thousands of people crowded into the streets and on every balcony, to watch a huge fireball raze this beautiful sculpture into nothingness.

Within minutes the flame had consumed everything recognizable, leaving only a tall, burning framework, which soon collapsed. The air was covered with thick, black smoke and the firefighters were constantly at work containing the blaze. It was all over so quickly.

On the walk home, we noticed that the mood of the city had changed. The last 19 days had been like great sex, and Valencia was exhausted after its fiery climax. Now that it was over, everything seemed unreal — the day-long parades, the mascletàs, the constant firecrackers, the ninots. Had I really, just two days ago, drank vodka from a two-liter and yelled “Guapa” at falleras? Yes, I had. But, as with sex, behavior that’s shameful afterwards was awesome during the heat of the moment.

Probably better not to dwell on the details of what just happened, and instead relax & enjoy the post-coital glow. Thanks, Valencia, for a wild time… pass me a cigarette.

Honestly, I didn’t expect too much from the Cabalgata del Fuego (Parade of Fire) but to my surprise it was one of the highlights of the Fallas. I never have seen a parade where the spectators get a torch of blowing fire held in their faces.

What an amazing firework display - possibly the best one I have ever seen. Especially cool were the propelling fireworks at 01:00!

May I introduce you to the Fallera Mayor of the Fallas 2008 — our dog Chucky.

Chucky has very split feelings about Fallas - on the one hand she loves the attention she’s been getting since we dressed her up with a Pañuelo. The Spanish are going crazy for her. But she does hate the fire crackers which people have been lighting up for 5 days straight now. Poor thing!

But it’s the last day and she’s almost gotten used to them!

Wondering if we can buy dog sized earplugs for the Fallas 2009.

I can’t wait for the Cremà tonight.

The Fallas monuments aren’t just created to amaze spectators — there is also a fiercely-waged annual competition to determine which committee pulled off the best monument of the year.

Quant de Comte: Nou Campanar

For 4 years straight Nou Campanar had won, and again this year they walked off with the top prize. Honestly, it was a deserved win. Their monument was easily the most impressive. It’s a little unfair — the enjoy a location outside the city center, which affords them more space to work with. But it’s hard to complain. “Quant de Comte” was the theme — though I don’t understand Catalan at all, it translates into something like “A whole lot to tell”. Fitting, to say the least.

Here are the finishing order for all 14 fallas monuments in competition:

Convento Jerusalem

1st Place: Nou Campanar
2nd Place: Convento Jerusalén
3rd Place: Exposición
4th: Sueca-Literato Azorín
5th: Plaza del Pilar
6th: Almirante Cadarso-Conde Altea
7th: Na Jordana
8th: Pizarro-Cirilo Amorós
9th: Reino de Valencia-Duque de Calabria
10th: Cuba-Literato Azorín
11th: Plaza de la Merced
12th: Archiduque Carlos-Chiva
13th: L’Antiga de Campanar
– No Prize: Malvarossa-Ponz-Cavite (which is mean: couldn’t they have just made a 14th place?)

Overall, I agree with the decisions, particularly the top 3. Disagreements would include the 4th prize for Sueca-Literato, which left both Juergen and I deeply unimpressed, and the 13th finish for L’Antiga de Campanar, which we thought was one of the most original. I would’ve put the hilarious Almirante cowgirl at #4. And we also loved 8th place Pizarro.

Make sure to check out our Valencia Map, where we’ve added a special category for Fallas Monuments 2008. For now, we just have the In-Competition monuments, but will be adding others over the next few days.

Tonight is La Cremà — also known as the burning of Valencia. We’ve decided to watch the monument of Convent Jerusalem go up in flames. Its motto is “Make Fire, Men!”, which is entirely appropriate.

This city is out of its goddamn mind. I love it.

This is the craziest thing I have seen - Best Mascletà Ever! I couldn’t even hold the camera still.

I just found out that you can call fireworks just castillo - much easier than Fuegos Artificiales! This one was kind of lame and I didn’t like that some of the fireworks went out of control. But still, it was better than anything you get to see in Germany for example.

“Guapa!”

“Hey, Guapa!”

This is the phrase we’ve been hearing for two days straight now, as thousands of falleras from all over Valencia march with flowers to Our Lady of the Forsaken. There are two routes, one of which runs very close to our apartment. From 16:30 to 1:30am, they deliver their flowers to the Plaza de la Virgin, where male falleros (“Hey, Guapo!”) are using them to construct the lady’s dress.

I’ve never really been confronted with a 7-hour parade before, let alone two consecutively, and as cynical as I’d like to believe I am, the unending marching music and shouting from the street do undeniably brighten my day. In fact, when today’s first band woke me from my siesta, I went onto our balcony in just my shorts and leaned over to watch the parade, clapping and shouting “Hey, Guapa!” I didn’t realize our neighbor was also out on her balcony. Heh — my sheepish grin was returned with an stone-faced glare.

Valencia is insane. If you’re reading this before she’s taken apart, you can view the Lady on the Valencia Webcam on the right side of this blog. Unlike the Fallas, she won’t be burned on the 19th — which is kind of sad.

Oh no … I have to run to the next one!