Turisme d’Elx :: Shopping

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Handcrafts

Elche’s craftspeople produce several products typical of the city’s output, ranging from shoes, the city’s principal industrial product, to blanched palm leaves, pottery and products made from its famous dates.

Blanched Palm leaves

With Elx being Europe’s Palm Grove, it is only logical that some of the city’s most typical products are made using palm trees and their fruit as the raw materials. Traditionally, the tree trunks and leaves have been used to produce objects, especially in the past, for rural use such as benches made from palm tree trunks, as well as baskets, brooms, etc.

One of the most characteristic craft products is the blanched palm leaf, either artistically woven or decorated or just the leaf itself. Both of these above are mainly used on Palm Sunday, a celebration of International Tourist Interest.

Palm leaves are blanched by ensuring that they receive no sunlight and thus, unlike plants exposed to sunlight, they do not produce the chlorophyll that gives them their green colour. The blanching process, known as the “encaporutxat” has three stages: first, the leaves are bound together and then they are covered by other dried palm leaves before finally being capped by the covering known as the vellet, or the cap’s crown.

During the run-up to Palm Sunday, the blanched palm leaves are harvested and exported to all parts of the Catholic world. Documentary evidence attesting to the existence of this craft and the export of blanched palm leaves to various European cities dates back to medieval times.

The blanched palm leaf also plays a part in the performance of the Elx Mystery Play, which UNESCO has declared as World Heritage.

The palm leaves can be purchased in the market that takes place on the Saturday previous to Palm Sunday in Baix, Madrid and Barcelona squares where craftsmen and women display their wares to the public.

In order to preserve this tradition, Elx Town Hall has set up the Municipal Blanched Palm Workshop, located in the Molí Real.

Pottery, Prints and Paintings

If you are interested in purchasing objects related to Elche’s art and culture, the Museu de la Festa museum shop offers original paintings, prints and works of pottery created by local artists inspired by the Mystery Play, the Dama de Elche, The Palm Groves and The City.

Esparto

Generations of shoemakers and basket weavers have used esparto to produce footwear, baskets etc. for use on farms, and indeed farmers have traditionally used esparto footwear, or espardeñas.

Located behind the Town Hall and opposite the central market are two of the historical centre’s most traditional shops where shoppers will find, as well as esparto products, local pottery, baskets and other souvenirs from Elx.