Days 14 & 15: Elche amidst the palms
Disclaimer: All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all?
Over the last two days, we have relocated to Elche, not far away, and also in the Valencia region. We've come here to see the UNESCO Heritage Palm Groves:
We finally left our friends waving to us on the beach in Valencia, and headed south and inland:
It was a slow start to the day, depleting the stocks of out of date vegemite on the terrace, so we simply left after lunch and took the 2+ hour highway, which could have been anywhere ... that is, until we turned off into the Elche streets, and the palm trees starting to multiply, first near an old tower beside the road:
and then just in what would have been any suburban Spanish streetscapes:
The palm groves in and around Elche are the only ones of their type in Europe, and one of the largest in the world. They have been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2000. There are reputed to be over 200,000 palms in the the various groves, including 97 different orchards with 70,000 date palms just in the city centre.
It is suspected that the Carthaginians introduced the palms in the 5th Century BC; the Romans added the watering system; and the Moors shifted the location from the original Roman site 7 km away and added more irrigation. Under the Christians, the palms also became productive for producing palm fronds for Easter celebrations.
The rectangular plots are called horts (Valencian) or huertos (Spanish) - meaning orchards - and used to have a house within each block ... but these are mainly now decayed and gone.
As we turned into the street where our hotel was located, our hearts were immediately captured by what this city had to offer:
(though we never found it again).
The hotel is a fairly upmarket one - a bit of a splurge for us:
One attraction is that it has its own on-site parking:
Reception looks spiffy:
and the rooms are in little bungalows, set amidst palm trees:
Ours was quite nice (we were offered the choice between a couple):
And there's a good restaurant on-site too - where we repaired for an early meal to get over the rigours of a short drive!
We only had one day in Elche, so the next morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we made the most of it, wandering around the palm tree groves. We started with our own hotel's garden and then the similarly named botanic garden across the road - the Huerto del Cura:
This included a pleasant lake ... no, pond really:
and the Imperial Palm, with seven stems in the shape of a candelabra. We are told that it was named after Elisabeth, known as Sissi, the Empress consort of Franz Joseph, who visited the plantation in 1894 and to whom it was dedicated. By 2014 the Imperial Palm was estimated to be about 170 years old. (It is amazing what local knowledge we can pick up!!)
There's also a strange statue - we never found out its significance:
Nearby is the Palm Grove Museum in the Huerto de San Plácido. It's set in a traditional 19th century house, with its two wings joined by a wooden bridge:
The museum in the house traces the origins, history, development and culture of the palmeral, including little models of traditional houses:
Nearby is the Porta de la Morera, under which there is a water channel called the Acequia Mayor del Pantano that has irrigated the palm groves for centuries:
The Museum is also the start of the Palm Grove Walk, a self-guided 2-3 km walk around this part of Elche. This took us through several more palm groves:
including one with an old tower:
and another with what we assume is a pigeonierre:
That was about enough for us, so we wandered back, past the cathedral, with its accompanying statues who were debating with us whether we had the energy to do any more walks:
and collapsed by the side of the pool:
Onwards to dinner ... and we leave tomorrow for Cazorla.
Over the last two days, we have relocated to Elche, not far away, and also in the Valencia region. We've come here to see the UNESCO Heritage Palm Groves:
We finally left our friends waving to us on the beach in Valencia, and headed south and inland:
It was a slow start to the day, depleting the stocks of out of date vegemite on the terrace, so we simply left after lunch and took the 2+ hour highway, which could have been anywhere ... that is, until we turned off into the Elche streets, and the palm trees starting to multiply, first near an old tower beside the road:
and then just in what would have been any suburban Spanish streetscapes:
The palm groves in and around Elche are the only ones of their type in Europe, and one of the largest in the world. They have been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2000. There are reputed to be over 200,000 palms in the the various groves, including 97 different orchards with 70,000 date palms just in the city centre.
It is suspected that the Carthaginians introduced the palms in the 5th Century BC; the Romans added the watering system; and the Moors shifted the location from the original Roman site 7 km away and added more irrigation. Under the Christians, the palms also became productive for producing palm fronds for Easter celebrations.
The rectangular plots are called horts (Valencian) or huertos (Spanish) - meaning orchards - and used to have a house within each block ... but these are mainly now decayed and gone.
As we turned into the street where our hotel was located, our hearts were immediately captured by what this city had to offer:
(though we never found it again).
The hotel is a fairly upmarket one - a bit of a splurge for us:
One attraction is that it has its own on-site parking:
Reception looks spiffy:
and the rooms are in little bungalows, set amidst palm trees:
Ours was quite nice (we were offered the choice between a couple):
And there's a good restaurant on-site too - where we repaired for an early meal to get over the rigours of a short drive!
We only had one day in Elche, so the next morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we made the most of it, wandering around the palm tree groves. We started with our own hotel's garden and then the similarly named botanic garden across the road - the Huerto del Cura:
This included a pleasant lake ... no, pond really:
and the Imperial Palm, with seven stems in the shape of a candelabra. We are told that it was named after Elisabeth, known as Sissi, the Empress consort of Franz Joseph, who visited the plantation in 1894 and to whom it was dedicated. By 2014 the Imperial Palm was estimated to be about 170 years old. (It is amazing what local knowledge we can pick up!!)
There's also a strange statue - we never found out its significance:
Nearby is the Palm Grove Museum in the Huerto de San Plácido. It's set in a traditional 19th century house, with its two wings joined by a wooden bridge:
The museum in the house traces the origins, history, development and culture of the palmeral, including little models of traditional houses:
Nearby is the Porta de la Morera, under which there is a water channel called the Acequia Mayor del Pantano that has irrigated the palm groves for centuries:
The Museum is also the start of the Palm Grove Walk, a self-guided 2-3 km walk around this part of Elche. This took us through several more palm groves:
including one with an old tower:
and another with what we assume is a pigeonierre:
That was about enough for us, so we wandered back, past the cathedral, with its accompanying statues who were debating with us whether we had the energy to do any more walks:
and collapsed by the side of the pool:
Onwards to dinner ... and we leave tomorrow for Cazorla.
Well who'd have thought palm trees could be so interesting and even have a dedicated museum! Wonderfully quirky. Good on UNESCO for adding it to the list! Your accommodation here is GORGEOUS! What a blissful place to end the day.
ReplyDeleteI know! Interesting place to head for. Weirdly, I saw a small segment about the UNESCO palm groves on a UK program called 'Escape to the Country' and thought it might be worth a stop. And it looks like it is/was. Thanks for sharing the journey of discovery with us, Joy.
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