AT THE HEART OF VALENCIA’S MARCH FERIA are the “fallas”: fantastical painted dioramas, made of wood and papier-mâché, standing as high as houses and depicting allegorical themes. Hundreds of guilds, representing different districts of the town, spend all year labouring over them. For a week, they are displayed on street corners, rated and judged.
Then, on the night of 19 March, to mark the feast of St Joseph — the ultimate carpenter — they are put to the torch (the cremà). As the effigies turn to ash, Valencians are reminded of the grimmest of
