Palmeral of Elche

The Palmeral is an oasis-like landscape of date palms. It was constructed during the Arab occupation of this area in Spain over 1000 years ago. The inhabitants of Elche used well known techniques from the Near East and the Sahara-region to let this desert bloom. This results in Elche looking to belong more to Iraq or Morocco than to European Spain.

UNESCO has added the Palmeral of Elche to the list on cultural grounds, as an unique example of Arab agricultural practices on the European continent.

Today there are about 180.000 palms left at the site in Elche. There is still a water shortage and irrigation is necessary, but the survival of the palms is high on the agenda of the city.

Year	Decision	Comments
2000	Inscribed	Reasons for inscription
1999	Deferred	Bureau - concern about heterogeneous nature of sites. Needs a smaller contiguous nomination

Visit Spring 1987 / December 2000

Close to the notorious holiday resort of Benidorm, where I was staying with acquaintances of my parents, I found this little treasure. The surroundings are almost like a desert, but thanks to the clever irrigational system a palm tree forest survives.

When I visited the site in 1987, it hadn´t reached World Heritage status yet. To be honest, at that time I didn´t know about the UNESCO World Heritages either, so Elche is recorded in my memory only as a nice daytrip.

Reviews

David Berlanda (Italy / Czech Republic):

In our trip to Spain we have been to the Palmeral of Elche, the most important complex of date palm groves in Europe, laid out by the Arab Muslims at the end of the 10th century as an oasis, a system of agricultural production in arid areas. The city of Elche and its centre are completely surrounded on the east by an incredibly large and continuous area of palm trees (some higher than 30 metres and older than 300 years), interrupted only by main traffic roads. The palms are everywhere, touching the houses of the outskirts and also inserting in the middle of them.
First we stopped at the Tourist Office where they have many information about the Palmeral, near which there are beautiful views of this “sea of palms” from the bridges over the river Vinalopó.
In the middle of the Palmeral there are four places, of which we have seen two, regarded as the most interesting features, mainly parks. First we went to the Municipal Park: here you can have a pleasant walk on gravelly paths in the middle of palms. The small park is laid out exactly like an urban garden with all its facilities, with palms combined with a lot of other species of plants, often flowering, situated in modern flower-beds.
Then we have been to the Huerto del Cura, a park similar to the Municipal one, but finer and comparable to a small botanical garden (the ticket for which is highly overpriced – 5 Euro), also with palms combined with other species of plants (cactuses, flowers…), but containing also fountains, statues, modern sculptures... The most interesting feature is the Imperial Palm, more than 200 years old, the trunk of which is separated into 7 arms.
However this garden design of the palm groves as urban parks or botanical gardens is seen by me as diminishing the authenticity of the Palmeral, although enhancing its state of conservation. However the major part of the Palmeral isn’t constituted by decorative palms, but by those used for the production of dates or palm leaves, laid out in polygonal plots bounded by fences and irrigated by canals. This arrangement is probably original and unchanged from the Arab times, so it is much more authentic than that of the parks; but it is clearly difficult to maintain them in a good state of conservation and keep them clean and you can see this in place. However, in my opinion, this type of grove is really the most interesting feature of the Palmeral.
There is also a 2,5 km long itinerary between this palm groves, starting from the Huerto de San Placido in front of the Huerto del Cura, about which you can find information and maps in the Tourist Office and on the Spanish web page http://www.turismedelx.com/es/rutas/2/. However, we have seen only a small part of this because it was raining.
This WHS is certainly not a classical type of destination for a tourist or a place where one could see extraordinary features, but it is much original and specific and especially for this reason it was interesting. It is not worthy of a long travel for visiting specifically it, but certainly it is worthy of a visit if you are in Spain for a longer holiday. It certainly justifies its inscription on the WHL not only because it is the largest palm grove in Europe, but above all because it is the only case of transposition of an agricultural system from one continent and culture to another one.
In the picture you can see some palms in the original palm groves and the delimitations of the plots on the ground.

Lynne Hewitt (England):
A beautiful park. I was mesmerised. If you're in the area it would be terrible not to visit. All ages could appreciate the tranquility.

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