Horta de València (characterized by its vegetable gardens) is one of the most iconic and emblematic historical territories for the Valencian society. It is also a social construction of the space for centuries by the people who have inhabited and use it, both from l’Horta itself and from the city of València. And no doubt it is also a paradigm of a productive field-city relationship that, periodically, has caused conflict and diversity of interests.

Nowadays Horta de Valencia can be defined as a main cultural and landscape heritage, along with a human, social and economic reality of people who live there and allow Horta to exist. This inheritance is also intermingled with the demands of the post-industrial urban society that has occupied the agricultural space more and more.

It is in this sense that this Cathedra (called: Horta de València: Heritage, Life and Sustainable Future) intends to spread the past and present of this territory, but also wants to be open to talk about the future with all the parties involved in it. Other objectives of this Cathedra are documenting and publicizing the historical, architectural and cultural heritage that Horta has accumulated for centuries; making the greatest possible dissemination of the abundant studies, researches and projects that scholars has recently produced about Horta; disseminating among Valencian social entities the most specific knowledge about what has been and what is today Horta. In short, this Cathedra wants to be the forum for debate about the present and the future of the complex metropolitan and agricultural space that represents l’Horta de València.