Elx Palm Grove. A World Heritage Site

Elx Palm Grove. A World Heritage Site

Due to its exceptional value and its singular beauty, the Elx Palm Grove was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 by UNESCO.

The discovery of fossilised date stones in this area of the Mediterranean would seem to support the theory that the palm tree has been in Elx since prehistory. It was the Moors, however, who planted them in the form of plantations creating, with the aid of irrigation, a landscape that has been indissolubly linked to Elx throughout its history.

The harmonious relationship between the city and its palm trees has survived until the present day – to such an extent that many public buildings and facilities as well as perfectly integrated residential areas rise from a sea of palms, forming a unique aesthetic experience. Elx’s Palm Grove, with over 200,000 examples growing within the borough, is without doubt the city’s greatest natural asset

The people of Elx’s commitment to conserving the palm plantations means that they have been maintained even after they were no longer economically viable. In recent years a large number of the plantations have been turned into public parks.

There is also an initiative to recover the traditional crafts related to the palm trees while the Phoenix Date Palm Research Station has been created in order to ensure the preservation of the palm plantations.

The palm tree not only provides delicious dates, it also provides the blanched palm leaves that are central to two of Elche’s most important cultural events: the Palm Sunday Procession, declared of International Tourist Interest, and the Elche Mystery Play, declared as World Oral and Intangible Heritage and an event of International Tourist Interest. During the play, an angel bears a palm leaf in his hand and gives it to the Virgin Mary.