L'Hemisfèric — planetarium
Diliff · CC BY 2.5

L'Hemisfèric

  • 1 min read
  • 39.457° N 0.354° W

Interesting facts

  • Two people standing at opposite pillars inside the eye can talk to each other quietly, thanks to the way the curved shell carries sound.
  • The concrete shell measures about 110 metres long and 55.5 metres wide, covering some 13,000 square metres.
  • When the long aluminium slats of the eyelid are raised, they fold together into a sunshade roof over the pool.
  • Work on the City of Arts and Sciences began in July 1996, and L'Hemisfèric opened less than two years later as the first finished building.
  • Besides the IMAX dome and the planetarium, the building was also equipped as a laserium for laser light shows.
  • Santiago Calatrava, who designed the eye, was born in 1951 in Benimàmet on the outskirts of Valencia itself.
  • The whole City of Arts and Sciences is reported to have cost around 1.2 billion euros.
  • The neighbouring Oceanogràfic, with its thin shell roofs, was designed not by Calatrava but by the Spanish-Mexican architect and engineer Félix Candela.

Why it is worth it

Valencia moved its river after a catastrophic flood in 1957 and turned the dry bed of the Turia into a long sunken park that curls around the old town. At its southeastern end, Santiago Calatrava built the City of Arts and Sciences, and L'Hemisfèric was its first building, opened on 16 April 1998. Calatrava shaped it as a giant eye — the "eye of knowledge" — and it is the image most people now associate with modern Valencia.

The metaphor is literal. A white concrete shell over 100 metres long forms the eyelid; inside it the domed projection hall is the pupil; and a shallow pool of about 24,000 square metres surrounds the building so that its reflection completes the eye into a full sphere. Along one side, long metal louvres fold up and down on hydraulic arms, so the eye appears to open and close. The building was kept to about 26 metres high so that it does not compete with the science museum and the opera house on either side, and it sits on the main axis that ties the whole complex together.

Inside, the hemispherical screen covers about 900 square metres and is some 24 metres across, the largest in Spain, and the hall seats around 300. It shows IMAX Dome films, digital 3D cinema and planetarium programmes, usually lasting about 45 minutes and changing through the year. For the best view of the architecture, walk around the pool in the early evening, when the lights come on and the reflection is at its sharpest; below ground, translucent glass panels set into the walkway above let daylight into the lobby.

Getting there

L'Hemisfèric is part of the City of Arts and Sciences, about 2.9 km from Valencia's historic centre, which you can reach on foot or by bike through the Turia Gardens. Valencia Airport (VLC) is 11.5 km away.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in the Valencian Community 5The Most Beautiful Places in Spain 150The Most Remarkable Planetariums 3The Most Remarkable Places for Stargazing and Science 4

39.45668, -0.35386per Wikidata