Village
Elche is a city and municipality in the province of Alicante, capital of the comarca of Baix Vinalopó, with 245,557 inhabitants, the third most populous city in the Valencian Community. Founded as an Iberian city in the 5th century BC under the name Helike, it became under Rome the Colonia Iulia Illici Augusta; after the Muslim conquest it settled on its present site, and around 1250 passed to Castile, ceded in 1305 to the Kingdom of Valencia. Amadeo I granted it the title of city in 1871, and in the 20th century its industrialisation made it a major footwear producer. It holds three Unesco recognitions - el Palmeral, the Misteri d'Elx and the Museo Escolar de Pusol - and it is the only place in the world with a handcrafted white-palm industry, which it sends every Holy Week to the kings of Spain or to the pope.
Monument
The largest palm grove in Europe, with more than 200,000 palm trees, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, of Muslim origin dating from the 10th century.
Monument
The Museo Escolar de Pusol (Pusol School Museum) is housed in the public school of the hamlet of Puçol, five kilometres from Elche, and works as an educational and museum project that involves the school and the community in preserving traditional cultural heritage. It was founded in 1968, when the teacher Fernando García Fontanet began collecting everyday objects from the comarca. Its holdings are organised into seven sections: agriculture and livestock, documentation, childhood, clothing, society, trades and domestic life, with pieces such as fans, calendars from 1946 or twentieth-century tractors. In 2009 UNESCO included its educational project in the Register of Best Safeguarding Practices for Intangible Cultural Heritage, and it has also received the Maximiliá Thous award.
Activity
A theatrical work depicting the death, Assumption and coronation of the Virgin, staged in Elche since the late Middle Ages; it is the only medieval-technique drama performed uninterruptedly for more than five hundred years, which is why UNESCO declared it a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001. It is divided into two days, performed every 14 and 15 August inside the basilica of Santa María in Elche. Local tradition links its origin to the miraculous finding of the image of the patroness on Tamarit beach, in Santa Pola, on 29 December 1370. The text is written entirely in Catalan, except for a few verses in Latin, and the music combines medieval liturgical hymns with Renaissance-style motets.
Monument
The Torre de la Calahorra is a fortress of Islamic origin built in the late 12th or early 13th century as a watchtower within the Andalusi defensive wall of Elche. Rectangular in plan, it defended the most important entrance to the Vila Murada, the road coming from Alicante, with rendered rubble-masonry walls and ashlar at the base and corners. Its battlements and neo-Arab windows, with zenithal lighting, were added in the 19th century. In the 16th century a manor house was attached to it, probably used as an almudín to control wheat before it was milled. It was declared a conjunto histórico artístico in 1968 (a Spanish heritage designation for a protected historic ensemble) and today houses the seat of the Sub-delegation of the Government of the Generalitat Valenciana.
Monument
Former Alcázar of the Lordship of Elche, a medieval fortress that houses the Archaeological and History Museum of Elche, covering the city's history from prehistory to the present day.
Nature
The archaeological site of La Alcudia lies 3 kilometres south of Elche, near the río Vinalopó, and covers about 10 hectares excavated over the last few centuries. For almost the whole of the 20th century it belonged to the Ramos family, who carried out the work, until in 1996 it was acquired by the University of Alicante, which opened a new phase centred on its scientific study. The stratigraphic sequence spans from the end of the Bronze Age to the beginning of the Islamic era, with its greatest peak in the Iberian and Roman periods, when the settlement was possibly the main city of the southern Iberian region. Here, in 1897, the Lady of Elche was found, and nearby a fragment of a sculpture of an Iberian warrior with a falcata, now in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional.
Monument
The basilica of Santa María de Elche is a baroque temple built between 1672 and 1784, where every year, on 14 and 15 August, the Misteri d'Elx is performed, a choral work in old Valencian. The building combines different styles depending on its parts: the Italianate baroque of the main façade, the rococo of the other doorways and the ambulatory, and the neoclassical interior. Several architects took part in its construction, among them the Castellón-born Jaime Bort y Meliá, as well as Francisco Verde, Pedro Quintana and Ferrán Fouquet. On 20 February 1936, in the lead-up to the Civil War, it was partially destroyed by an arson fire, and was restored years later. Its bell tower offers panoramic views of the city and the Palmeral de Elche.
Monument
Arab baths preserved beneath the Renaissance convent of la Mercè, in the old town of Elche.
Monument
El Huerto del Cura is a private historic garden in Elche (Alicante), at the Puerta de la Morera, within the Palmeral de Elche, declared a World Heritage Site in 2000. It was born in 1876 when the farmer Andrés Castaño Peral acquired the plot; its name comes from the chaplain José Castaño Sánchez, a later owner. It houses close to a thousand palm trees, mostly date palms, together with pomegranate, orange, fig and lemon trees and cactus collections, over 13,361 m². Its most famous specimen is the Palmera Imperial, with seven branches, so named after the 1894 visit of the empress Elisabeth of Bavaria. In 1943 it was declared a Jardín Artístico Nacional (Spain's national artistic-garden heritage designation). It is open to visitors for an admission fee.
Monument
The old town hall of Elche, on the Plaça de Baix in the historic centre, has at its core the Torre del Consejo, a square tower in Valencian Gothic style built between 1441 and 1444 under the direction of the master builder Beiam and originally integrated into the town wall. In 1548 the building was transformed into a Renaissance-style palace, with a façade of two windows on each side of an arched portal and a series of round arches on pillars on the upper floor; in 1645 the east wing was added. The result thus combines the Gothic of the exchange hall and the tower with the Renaissance style of the façade, and preserves a spiral staircase inside.
Monument
The current church of San Juan Bautista in Elche stands in the Raval on the site of a 13th-century mosque and a 16th-17th-century Baroque temple. The present building, designed by the architect Antonio Serrano Peral in 1940 and modified in 1953, was completed and opened for worship in 1962.
Monument
Surviving remnant of the old Islamic wall of Elche, one of the gateways into the medieval walled enclosure.
Nature
Wetland of 2,470 hectares formed by the silting up in the 17th century of the former Albufera of Elche, spread across Elx, Santa Pola and Crevillent, of great ornithological value.
Nature
The Huerto de San Plácido, in the Palmeral of Elche, a World Heritage Site since 2000, houses the Palmeral Museum, opened in 1997 and renovated in 2006, set in a traditional 19th-century house. Its exhibits, with videos, panels and sound elements, explain the origins, history and traditional uses of the Elche palm grove. Access to the outdoor garden, with its centuries-old date palms, is free, while the visit to the 19th-century house has an admission charge; from Tuesday to Friday mornings a demonstration by a professional palm-tree climber can be requested. The site is also the starting point of the Palmeral Route, a signposted 2580-metre walk through the historic orchards.
Curiosity
The Lady of Elche is an Iberian limestone bust 56 centimetres high and 115 in circumference, carved between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, depicting a richly adorned woman wearing a headdress with a tiara, veil and two side coils, three necklaces and a brooch fastening the tunic; it was originally polychrome, with the eyes filled with glass paste. It was found by chance on 4 August 1897 at the La Alcudia site and was bought by the Louvre Museum following the interest of the Hispanist Pierre Paris; in 1941 it returned to Spain and was deposited in the Prado Museum, and since 1971 it has been part of the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid. A 2011 analysis of remains found in its rear cavity concluded that it had been used as a cinerary urn in Iberian times.
Curiosity
The Imperial Palm is a date palm in the Huerto del Cura, in Elche, on which offshoots began sprouting from the trunk of a male specimen in 1873, at a height of 1.80 metres; over time these were reduced to the seven branches that today grow from a single trunk 1.50 metres above the ground, one of them already dry. It weighs about 10 tonnes and is around 165 years old. It owes its name to the 1894 visit of Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria, Sissi, wife of Franz Joseph I of Austria, who was impressed on seeing it and remarked to its owner, the chaplain Castaño, that the palm had a strength worthy of an empire.
Curiosity
Elche is the only Spanish city with three separate UNESCO recognitions. The Palmeral of Elche, one of Europe's main palm-tree producers by extent, is designated a World Heritage Site. The Misteri d'Elx, a symbol of the city's identity and its main tourist attraction, is a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The Pusol School Museum, for its part, appears on the register of best safeguarding practices for the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Activity
Elche's main festival in honour of the Virgin of the Assumption, coinciding with the performance of the Misteri d'Elx, held every 14 and 15 August inside the basilica of Santa María. The work, whose creation recent research places in the second half of the 15th century, is structured in two acts: the Vespra, on the 14th, with the Dormition of the Virgin, and the Festa, on the 15th, with the Assumption and Coronation; all roles are performed by men, following medieval liturgical tradition, with text in old Valencian and passages in Latin. In 1632 Pope Urban VIII authorised it to continue being performed inside the church despite the prohibition of the Council of Trent. In 2001 UNESCO declared it a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Activity
The Palm Sunday procession of Elche, also known as the Procession of the Palms, opens Elche's Holy Week by re-enacting Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, with the image of Our Lord Jesus Triumphant — known as the pas de la burreta — the work of the religious art workshop of Olot. Tens of thousands of residents walk through the streets of the centre carrying white palm fronds made by artisan families from the palms of the Palmeral of Elche, a tradition documented since 1371, when the Consell de la Vila joined the festival by distributing alms. The present-day brotherhood was reorganised in 1941 by Vicente Serrano, before passing to the Junta Mayor de Cofradías y Hermandades de Elche.
Monument
Tower begun in 1441 on the plaça de Baix in Elche (Alicante), which over time incorporated the market lonja (exchange hall) and other adjoining buildings to form the complex now occupied by the city's town hall. Its construction, dated to the 15th century, made it the seat of municipal power, a function it retains today as the administrative heart of Elche.
Monument
Museum devoted to the characteristics, history and evolution of the Palmeral of Elche, designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. It is located within the Palmeral itself, in a traditional 19th-century house in the Huerto de San Plácido, and was opened in 1997 and renovated in 2006. Through videos, panels, exhibits and sounds, it covers the origins, development, culture and uses of this ecosystem. The visit to the outdoor garden, where traditional crops and uses of the date palm can be seen, is free, while access to the interior of the house requires a paid ticket.
Monument
Former Franciscan chapel in Elche built in the early 18th century by the Franciscan Third Order, refurbished as a cultural venue.
Nature
El Altet beach is one of the beaches of the district of the same name in Elche (Alicante), on the municipality's nine kilometres of coastline, awarded a Blue Flag. It stretches for 2000 metres of fine golden sand, with calm waters and moderate waves, in an almost pristine setting with no large urban developments. To the north it joins Urbanova beach, already in the municipality of Alicante, and to the south, Arenales del Sol and the Carabassí dunes. Its dune system, of high ecological value, connects with the Fondet de la Senieta and nearby areas such as the Clot de Galvany, the Santa Pola salt flats and the El Hondo Nature Park, making it a benchmark for its lightly developed coastline.
Nature
Arenales del Sol beach is part of the coastal settlement of the same name, about 15 kilometres from Elche and 5 from El Altet airport. It stretches for 2,800 metres with a width of 40 metres, with golden sand and moderate waves. It remained practically untouched until the 1950s and 1960s, when the first hotel and the pioneering buildings were erected, largely the work of Tomás Durá Bañuls and Juan García García; urban growth accelerated in the late 1990s and 2000s, with the neighbourhood becoming an area of second homes, with 1,937 inhabitants in 2018. In its surroundings, natural areas such as the El Clot de Galvany wetland and the Carabassí fossil dunes are preserved, protected with wooden walkways.
Nature
El Carabassí beach, located between the municipalities of Elche and Santa Pola, has a system of high dunes, fossil dunes and pine woods that gives it notable ecological value. It measures about 900 metres long by 80 wide and continues to a rocky shoreline already in Santa Pola. It is an almost pristine natural area, awarded a Blue Flag, with moderate waves and a tradition of nudism along part of its length. It has maritime surveillance, sun loungers, a beach bar and areas set aside for water sports, and is easily accessible on foot or by car, with high occupancy in season.
Nature
La Marina beach, in the coastal hamlet of the same name in Elche, is an extensive beach of fine golden sand about 1500 metres long by 20 wide, with dune systems and large pine groves on the non-urbanised stretches. Semi-urban in character, it has Blue Flag status, lifeguard service, sunbed and parasol rental, adapted access and a nautical station for water sports. It lies on the Mediterranean, near Guardamar del Segura and the Salinas de Santa Pola. The hamlet owes its origin to the colonising drive of Cardinal Belluga, linked to the drainage of the marshes (marjales) of the Vega Baja del Segura.
Curiosity
The coastline of Elche is twelve kilometres long, of which nine are beaches formed by dunes and pine groves of Mediterranean landscape. In the northern area are the beach of El Altet, with extensive dunes, joined to Los Arenales del Sol, and the dunes of Carabassí; in the southern area, El Pinet, La Marina and Les Pesqueres-El Rebollo, with clear waters and fine sand surrounded by pine groves. Several of these beaches, including El Altet, Los Arenales del Sol, Carabassí, La Marina and Les Pesqueres-El Rebollo, hold Blue Flag status.
Activity
Elche's main fair, held in August, one of the city's most important festive events.
Nature
The Municipal Park of Elche is one of the best-known parts of the Palmeral de Elche, a public garden with century-old date palms right in the centre of the city. It covers about 7 hectares, formed by the grouping of several old orchards devoted to date-palm cultivation. In its northern area is the Municipal Arboretum of Elche, of about 5,000 square metres, opened in 1991.
Nature
One of the historic groves of the Palmeral of Elche, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
Nature
One of the groups of historic groves that make up the Palmeral of Elche.
Curiosity
In the 10th century the Muslim inhabitants of Elche devised a special irrigation system for arid land that made the Palmeral possible and is still in use today.
Activity
Festivities of one of Elche's historic neighbourhoods, with religious and popular events.
Activity
Elche's traditional Fira de la Mona, held after Semana Santa, with the sale of the traditional Easter monas.
Nature
The dune system of Arenales del Sol extends alongside a beach about 2,800 metres long by 40 wide, on the coast of Elche (Baix Vinalopó, Alicante), and preserves the largest fossil dunes in the area, making it one of the few dune systems of such importance remaining in Spain. Since 2009, under the Plan E approved by the Government, a system of wooden walkways has been built to access the beach, helping to protect the dunes. Even so, the continuing urban growth of Arenales del Sol is encroaching on the fossil dunes and has made them almost completely disappear.
Curiosity
One of the historic districts of Elche, of Morisco origin, next to the old town, known as the Raval de Sant Joan. It was formed after the Muslim uprising of 1265, when Alfonso X of Castile, with the help of the Aragonese king James I, put down the revolt and expelled the Muslim population from the walled enclosure, forcing it to settle in a new settlement next to the Vila Murada, which gave rise to this district.
Activity
Elche's autumn fair, held around the feast of All Saints.
Historical milestone
Around the year 26 BC Augustus founded on the Elche plain a colony of veterans of the Cantabrian wars. Ilici struck its own coinage, enjoyed fiscal immunity and traded throughout the Mediterranean through its port, the present Santa Pola.
Historical milestone
The agreement signed in 1305 between Jaime II of Aragon and Fernando IV of Castile closed the partition of the former kingdom of Murcia begun in the ruling of Torrellas. Elche and its comarca were incorporated into the Kingdom of Valencia and into the Crown of Aragon.
Historical milestone
Raised from 1632 in the channel of the Vinalopó to secure the irrigation of the huerta, it is twenty-three metres high and of curved plan. It is considered the first arch dam built in Europe since Roman times and it is a bien de interés cultural.
Historical milestone
The expulsion decreed in 1609 emptied the Morisco arrabal of Elche, outside the walls of the villa. Between 1609 and 1611 the lord of the place, Jordi de Cárdenas, organised the resettlement with Christian families and reassigned the abandoned irrigated lands.
Historical milestone
The espadrille of esparto and hemp was Elche's first industry. The arrival of the sewing machine in 1875 opened the way to leather footwear, and before the First World War a hundred or so factories employed most of the city's workers.
Historical milestone
In 1871 Amadeo I granted Elche the title of city, a recognition of the demographic and industrial growth the villa had undergone during the 19th century. The distinction came when esparto and the espadrille already sustained the local economy.
Food and drink
Pomegranate variety with soft flesh and an almost imperceptible seed, grown in the Baix Vinalopó and neighbouring comarcas. It has held a protected designation of origin since 2016 and is harvested between September and December over some 3,000 hectares of irrigated land.
Food and drink
The date palms of the Palmeral produce dates that are gathered in autumn, after the bunches have been covered so that they ripen. They are sold fresh or dried, filled with marzipan or coated in chocolate, and have a recognised quality mark of their own.
Food and drink
Stew-pot rice with chickpeas, balls of minced meat, blanquet and longaniza, finished in the oven covered with beaten egg until it forms a golden crust. It is the festival dish of Elche and is served in the earthenware casserole itself.