{"id":1458,"date":"2019-11-29T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T09:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonneil.com\/blog\/?p=1458"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:21:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:21:54","slug":"palm-grove-elche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonneil.com\/blog\/en\/palm-grove-elche\/","title":{"rendered":"The Palm Grove of Elche: A UNESCO World Heritage Site"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The city of Elche, situated\nabout 20 km from Alicante<\/a>,\nhas much to offer: a city centre steeped in layers of history going back to\npre-Roman times and a hinterland that boasts of beautiful beaches and\nspectacular national parks. Arguably, however, its most outstanding feature is\nits magnificent Palm Grove.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This magical UNESCO world\nheritage site consists of a large expanse of palm trees (reportedly numbering\ntwo hundred and forty thousand – one for every inhabitant of Elche<\/a>)\nlocated in several gardens and plots surrounding the city \u200b\u200bcentre. It is\nthe only palm grove of its type anywhere in Europe and one of the largest in\nthe world, surpassing in size many of its kind in Arab countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is thought that it was\nthe Carthaginians who first began to grow palm trees on the Costa Blanca and\nthe Romans, who came later, continued to cultivate them, before the arrival of\nthe Arabs who greatly extended the plantation of date palms. Under the Arab\nruler Abd al-Rahman an irrigation system installed and later, in the Middle\nAges, a series of laws were enacted to protect the plantation. The Moors also\nfurther developed the irrigation system with the water of the Vinalop\u00f3 river\nthat flows through the city, which is still in use today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The most famous plots in the\npalm grove are the Parque Municipal, Huerto de Abajo, Huerto del Cura and\nHuerto del Chocolatero. The oldest are in the Huerto del Cura where some\n300-year-old specimens can be found. The huerto del cura is also home to the\nmost beautiful tree of them all: the imperial palm, which, with its eight\ntrunks resembles a kind of arboreal candelabra that has been drawing crowds\nsince the 19th century, including the Austrian Empress Elizabeth, who visited\nthe garden in 1894 and declared it worthy of an empire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For information on the\nhistory and culture surrounding the Palmeral a visit to the Museum of the Palm\nGrove (Museo del Palmeral) is unmissable. Here you can also discover the\nartisanal specialty of Elche, the weaving of the white palm: a local handicraft\ninvolving the weaving of dried out palm leaves into creations of rare finesse\nfor use in the Palm Sunday procession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2000, the UNESCO designated the Palm Grove as a World Heritage Site citing the transfer of landscape and agricultural practices from one culture and continent to another (Moorish North Africa to Christian Europe).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Gran Alacant, very close to Elche, is the residential Iconic<\/strong>, a new development with 170 homes overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and minutes walk from the beach. It is surrounded by all services: shopping center, restaurants and supermarkets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n