Elche, situated on both banks of the Río Vinalopó in one of the hottest parts of Spain, is noted for its palm grove, a feature unique in Europe. There were Iberian, Phoenician and Greek settlements on the site, and the Romans founded the colony of Julia Ilici here. With its flat-roofed white houses and domed churches the old part of the town, set on the edge of an oasis of palms, has an Oriental air. Elche is now a center of shoe manufacture.
North of Santa María, in the 15th century Palacio de Altamira, is the Archeological Museum, with a fine collection of prehistoric, Iberian, Greco-Roman and Islamic antiquities.
Archeological Museum - Lady of Elche
The museum has only a copy of the famous "Lady of Elche", an Iberian figure of the fourth or third century B.C. which was found at Elche in 1897; the original is in the Archeological Museum in Madrid.
The garden is famous for its great grove of palms, El Palmeral. The great trees cast deep and welcome shade on winding paths. The Mediterranean orchard are intermixed with other exotic flowering plants.
Botanical garden Huerto del Cura in Elche.
Address: Huerto del Cura, Porta de la Morera 49, E-03203 Elche, Spain
Farther south from Puente de Santa Teresa is the Museum of Contemporary Art, with a collection of pictures, graphic art, sculpture and ceramics, mainly by Catalan and Valencian artists.
Address: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Plaza Major Del Raval, E-03202 Elche, Spain
There is a very fine view of the town from the Puente de Santa Teresa, a bridge in Gothic style (1705) which spans the Río Vinalopó a little way southwest of the Plaza Baix.
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Palmeral de Europa
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Huerto del Cura, Elche
Elche
