¿Ves algo que mejorar? Propón un cambio.
Esta página es pública.
Esta página también está en Español: Elche: guía de viaje
Elche has the only large palm grove in Europe, and it runs through the middle of town. The Wikivoyage guide describes a city of 225,000 in the Valencia region of south-eastern Spain, just outside Alicante, known in Valencian as Elx, divided in two by the Vinalopó River and long an industrial city, especially for shoes. The palm groves are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The Palmeral of Elche. Photo by José Carlos Díez, CC BY 3.0.
The palm grove
The Palmeral is one of the world's largest palm groves and the only one in Europe. The Phoenicians established it and the Arabs expanded it in the 8th and 9th centuries. It is made up of several parts spread across downtown, and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. Parts are public parks: Parc Rei Jaume I, made by combining two semi-abandoned groves and replanting them; the Municipal Park, whose largest grove was granted to the city in the 17th century by a wealthy landowner; and the Parc del Filet de Fora, the city's second largest, created in the 1990s by combining five groves. An 18th-century water wheel, the Molí del Real, was once powered by a channel of the Vinalopó, and one garden, the Hort del Cura, has a cactus collection.
Monuments
The guide lists the Palau d'Altamira, which shares an address with the city's archaeological and history museum, Arab baths beneath a convent, the Basílica de Santa Maria, the L'Alcúdia archaeological park, the Calahorra tower and the Vaillo de Llanos tower, a watchtower built in the late 15th and early 16th centuries as part of a defensive network, now restored for temporary exhibits and open to climb for a view of the groves.
The Palau d'Altamira. Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0.
A calendar of festivals
| Festival | What happens |
|---|---|
| Palm Sunday procession | A week before Easter, tens of thousands of residents carry locally made palm fronds, sometimes woven into elaborate constructions, through the streets. The procession dates to 1371, palm fronds first appeared in 1429, and Spain lists it as a Festival of International Interest |
| Elx al Carrer | Early June, one of the country's largest street theatre festivals |
| Moors and Christians | 7 to 11 August, parades and reenactments celebrating the Christian reconquest of the city, with the Moorish and Christian entries and a reenacted battle by the Altamira castle |
| Nit de l'Albà | 13 August, in honor of the Assumption of Mary: residents set off firecrackers from 23:15, a tradition from the Middle Ages, and at midnight a giant fireworks display reaches 300 m and looks like a palm tree while the whole city is lit for one minute |
The Nit de l'Albà. Photo by Jcca76, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Food and shoes
Elche's best-known dish is arròs amb crosta, a clay pot of rice with rabbit or chicken, sausage, beans and chickpeas, cooked on the stovetop and then baked with beaten eggs on top. The delicias de Elche are dates stuffed with almonds and wrapped in fried bacon, served as tapas, and the favourite dessert is the tortada, a flourless cake of ground almonds, eggs and meringue.
Arròs amb crosta. Photo by Juan J. Martínez, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Delicias de Elche. Photo by Avicentegil, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Because of the shoe manufacturing history, there are many shoe shops with good prices and a wide selection. Elche CF, promoted to La Liga in 2025, plays three kilometres east of the centre.
Getting there
The Alicante-Elche airport is 13 km away, with flights to over 50 destinations at least weekly. AVE fast trains from Madrid take 3 hours via Albacete and Alicante, a local train runs between Alicante, Elche and Murcia, and the port of Alicante, 20 km away, has ferries from the Balearic Islands and Oran in Algeria. The guide says most onward routes go through the resort city of Alicante, and that parking downtown can be impossible at some times, so a bus or walking is better.
Sources
- Wikivoyage, "Elche" (https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Elche), by its contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; changed here: rewritten and condensed in hubnx's own words, with listings, prices, phone numbers, hours, contact details and edit links left out. Photos, each under its own licence: José Carlos Díez (CC BY 3.0), Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0), Jcca76 (CC BY-SA 4.0), Juan J. Martínez (CC BY-SA 2.0) and Avicentegil (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Licencia: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Adaptado de en.wikivoyage.org
Comentarios
