Smell and place, on the evidence.

Valencia pilot

• Valencia City · smellbook:locality:valencia
• Fallas of Valencia Festival · smellbook:tradition:valencia-fallas

What the first source survey found

On 2026-10-03, SmellBook ran 20 searches of the scientific literature (Europe PMC) for smell research about Valencia and the Fallas. The raw results are kept unedited in SmellBook's internal records. Each search kept its top 8 results (by citations or by date); a study ranked lower may have been missed, so “not found” means not among the results inspected.

• One study analysed the volatile compounds and sensory traits of breads from artisanal bakeries in the city of Valencia. It is now a registered source, and Fresh Bread is linked to Valencia through it.
• Many studies use “Valencia” as the name of an orange variety. They are not about the city and are not linked.
• This survey found no study that measured or described the smells of the Fallas. That question stays open.
• Historical questions need archives and libraries, which this survey did not cover.

How a smell is connected to a place

A smell is linked to a locality or tradition only when a VERIFIED claim, resting on a registered scientific or historical source, names that place or tradition in its own words. How a place or festival is commonly said to smell is cultural description, not evidence, and is not shown as a link.

• Scientific evidence. Supported by registered peer-reviewed research or scientific review literature. Can support a heritage link.
• Historical evidence. Supported by a registered historical record or archive source. Can support a heritage link.
• Cultural description. A description of how a smell is commonly perceived, named or associated. It can vary by person and culture. Never a heritage link.
• Editorial interpretation. A SmellBook editorial decision, such as a classification, a link between entries or a curated list. Never a heritage link.
• Community observation. A contribution or observation from the public. It never becomes scientific fact automatically. Never a heritage link.
• Experimental / predicted. A computed or experimental candidate relation, published only in Labs. PREDICTED is never VERIFIED. Never a heritage link.

For museums, universities and schools

Everything here is open. SmellBook has no institutional partners yet; these tools are ready for anyone to use and test:

• The Valencia pilot sheet, ready to print on one or two A4 pages.
• The Valencia research agenda as a worksheet: record a checked source against any open question.
• The draft olfactory heritage record format and its offline checker, which can now point to localities and traditions by permanent identifier.
• Heritage records as open data, also in the knowledge-graph export.

The heritage research agenda lists open questions, not findings. It names no sources and makes no claim about how any place or tradition smells. Answers enter SmellBook only through source intake with a checked citation, and connect a smell to a place or tradition only through an evidence-gated link.