SPAIN // Poor old Valencia never had an Alhambra or Sagrada Família to match its urban amigos in Granada and Barcelona. Rather than sitting around and sulking, city planners went away and designed their own super-modern monument for the ages, the spectacular City of Arts & Sciences. Built on a reclaimed riverbed in the 1990s using the futuristic designs of local boy Santiago Calatrava, the project proved to be controversial, long-winded and expensive. The finished article, with its glassy, curvy, futuristic flourishes, accommodates an opera house, a science museum, a 3D cinema and an aquarium. Kicking off the 21^st century like a Messi wonder-goal, it has every right to claim its place alongside the Alhambra et al as a modern Spanish masterpiece.