Elche, (Elx) is the City of Palms, Costa Blanca, Spain - Attractions

 Elche Costa Blanca, Spain...

Elche is situated in the Costa Blanca, Spain. and is the third most populous city of the Valencian Region. Elche encompasses the entire range of attractions that the province has to offer its visitors: pre-history, history, natural riches, and the influence of its citizens on culture and traditions are all elements that are worthy of note in this modern, thriving and growing city.

Attractions in Elche

Altamira Palace / Castle (Palacio De Altamira)

• Originally
  The fortified palace of Jaime II of Aragon, Ramon Berenguer, Pedro IV and the some Catholic Monarchs
• Later is became
  • A prison in the Wesatern Wingdurinf the Civil War
  • A Textile Factory in 1915 - 1960 in the courtyard parade ground
• Now:
  • It is the location of the Archaeological & History Museum.
  • The parade ground is also used for cultural & social events.
• The Keep, Torre del Homenaje. has machicolations on three of it's sides. These overhang the battlements allowing defenders to drop stones or fire upon attackers at the foot or the wall or scalling it.

Location of The Altamira Palace

Diagonal del Palau s/n, Elche. Ne

xt to the River Vinalopo

The Altamira Palace Fountain Pplaza (Plaza del Palacio y Sus Fuentes.)

Arab Baths (Banos Arabes)

• The baths known as Hammams were built about 1150. & opened to the public in 1998
• Fabulously preserved. only a few examples of Islamic
• The baths were used by muslims to wash & cleanse themselves prior to prayer in the Mosque, and also became a pleasurable venue for socialising & relaxation.
• Elche had additional hammams, but these were the most important being near to the Mosque and the main city gate, La Lucentina.
• Besides changing facilites the baths containes 3 rooms, temperate, hot, and cold. The hot room having a similar temperature to a sauna..
• After restoration the Arab Baths were opened to the public in 1998. During a modern day viewing the visitor has a recorded voice explaining what each room was used for. The vist is enhanced with lighting & sounds to recreate the original atmosphere of the original Arab Baths.

Closed on Mondays & public Holidays

Free on Sundays else there is a small charge

Calahorra Tower (Torre de la Calahorra)

• The Calahorra Tower is the main gateway into the Muslim City of Elche from Alicante
• It also acted as an Islamic defensive watch tower& the onlt tower of the city walls stillstanding.
• Built by the Almohads in the 12th century & rebuilt 2 centuries later.

Huerto del Cura Gardens (Jardin Huerto del Cura)

• Huerto del Cura Gardenis best known known for thefamous and very rare 7-branched Imperial Palm Tree, a biological mystery.
• Besides this magical wonderous palm, the park has fasininating numerous ponds with colourful fishswim below the marvelous reflextions in the water.
• Also see manybirds that can not be seen in the colder counties such as Britai both on the water, gardens and palms
• The Huerto del Cura Garden was declared a National Artistic Garden in 1943.
• Although there area 1000 palm trees there are many mor interestin treesincludingmandarin, orange, bitter orange, grapefruit, lemon, Buddha’s hand, caviar lime, calamondin orange, kumquat, limequat, citrus rosso, yuzu lime or citrus bergamot

Palm Grove ( Palmeral de Elche)

• The Elche Palm Grove is the largest palm park in Europe
• Planted in Roman Times
• A World heritage site

Visitors Centre (Centro de Visitantes)

• Nicknamed The Egg because of it's shape of 4 white domes.
• Originally used for the Archaeological Museum, transferred in 1984 to Palace of Altamira in 1984
• After housing the bust of Lady of Elche statue for 2 weeks it became the Museum of the White Palm and as an exhibition hall.
• From 2003 it became a visitor centre with touch screen audio visual displays of the City of Elche
• Opposite the entrance is a narrow water feature enhanced with a row of bushes on either side

Lady of Elche (Dama de Elche) Statues

Footwear City of Spain

• Elche is the centre of the footwear industry in Spain.
• There are 1000 shoe factories in & near the city, many of these are open to the public and have outlet shops, including Salvador Artesano, one of the biggest shoe outlets in Europe.
• For price, quality, choice, the factory outlets are well worth a visit.

Multiaventura Elche Adventure Park

Video of Multiaventura Elche Adventure Park

Music sound track

• Adult & Kids sections
• Address Av. del Travalon, 31, Elches

Nit de L’Albà Elche's Fireworks display

Moors and Christians festival  (Fiesta de Moros y Cristianos)

• The festival takes place from August 7 through to August 11.

Santa María Basílica

• Originally in this location was the Mosque of the Muslim city.
• The Mosque was concecrated as a Church dedicated to Saint Mary (Maria) after James I captured the city from the Moors in
• The current Basílica Santa María (built from 1672 till 1784) & is an amazing unique bmixture of architectural styles, that include Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance
• The main entrance, is in Baroque style, and is amazingly beautifully decorated

Santa María Basílica Bell Tower

• The absolute best views of Elche are from the roof of Santa María Basílica Bell Tower.
• Entrance to the bell tower is by a very small undecorated doorway to the left of the main Basilica entrance, in Saint Mary Square (Plaça de Santa Maria).
• There is a very small  entrance charge. from the small ticket office / souvineer shop  located just of to the rightafter you enter.
  • This ticket office is actually a side chapel in the  main part of the Basilica, but seperated from it br  a guard rail.
• Next to the ticket office is the stone narrow circular stair case with a rope handrail
• The bell tower has 170 steps to the top.
• First Floor A small room part of the Bell Ringers home which contains some benches if you are out of breath. The room also opens to the Basilicas Balcony are
• Luckally you can take a break on the floors as you ascend.
• Up untill the 193os the bell ringeralong with his family lived.
• Ascending you will find photographic exibitions of the Basilica & the origins of Elches Mystery Play.
• Then comes the bell floor and information about the Nit de L’Albà Elche's Fireworks display celebrating

The Belfry tower of the Basilica of Santa María de Elche consists of 170 steps to its highest part, with three rooms to rest along the way. Each of these rooms correspond to the rooms where, until the 1930s, the bell ringer and his family lived.

Currently, in the first and second rooms, there are two photographic exhibitions on the main façade of the Basilica and on the stained glass windows of the temple, as well as explanatory panels on the origin of the Misteri d'Elx.

In the third room there are the bells of the temple, as well as different explanatory panels of each of them, the Nit de L'Albà and the Elche heritage sites, the Palmeral and the Misteri.

At the top of the tower, outside, we can contemplate a panoramic view of the city and appreciate the entire extension of the Historic Palm Grove of Elche, declared a World Heritage Site.

https://www.visitelche.com/cultura/monumentos/torre-de-la-basilica-de-santa-maria/

San Juan Baptist Church

Santa Lucia Convent

Town Hall in Elche

Tourist Information Office

Address: Plaza Parque,3 03202 Elx/Elche

Elche  Museums

Archaeological and History Museum of Elche. Museo Arqueológico y de Historia de Elche (MAHE)

Located inside the Altamira Palace

Diagonal del Palau s/n, Elche

Navity Museum (Museu del Betlem)

Created by the makers of nativity scenes.

• The City of Bethlehem is reborn with it's people & city square in miniature
• Various Nativity scenes
• Free

Located at Plaça de la Fruita nº31, in front of the Central Market and behind the Town Hall.

Plaza de la Fruita, 31. Elche

Paleontological Museum (Museo Paleontologico de Elche)

(Molí del Real)

• Mill used to be powered by a head of water via water channel from 10 kilometres upriver
• Impressive building but closed to the public although owned by the council.

Transport in Elche

Elche Tourist Train (El Trenet)

• Starting from the front of the Tourist Information Office
• Leaves on the hour from 10am to 5pm
• A 45 minute tour of Elches tourist sites including:
• El Palmeral the Municipal Park
• Municipal Park
• Part of Historical Walk Route
• 4 more stops

Route

Oficina de turismo (Parada principal), Cases de la Mare de Deu, entrada al parque municipal por la puerta situada junto a la oficina de turismo, recorrido interior por el parque municipal, atravesando la zona de juegos infantiles, salida por la puerta situada junto al Molí del Real, Av.Alcalde Vicente Quiles, Paseo de la Estación, C/ Fatxo, C/ Uberna, C/ Trinquet, Corredora, Puente Ortices, Plaza Constitución, C/ Almórida, Porta de la Morera, C/ Beniardá, Camino de la Almazara, C/ Curtidores, C/ Eugenio D’Ors, Porta de la Morera, C/ Daoiz, C/ Doctor Jiménez Díaz, C/ Luis Gonzaga Llorente, C/ Maestro Albéniz hasta la parada principal junto a la oficina de Turismo

Train Stations

• Both railway stations are operated by ADIF-RENFE.

Elche-Parque Station

Elche/Elx Carrus station

Av. De la Llibertat, 03201 Elx, Alicante, Spain

Local Bus Services Subus

1A - El Altet Airport t - Business Park-  Timetable PDF Summer

1B - Elche Business Park - Torrellano -El Altet Airport (Alicantre Airport) -- Arenales del Sol    Timetable PDF Winter

Tourist Information Office