AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Hort del Sol is a quietly recovering palm grove on Carrer Porta de la Morera in Elche, part of the UNESCO-listed Palmeral d'Elx. Once an Arab cemetery before passing to the Church after the sixteenth-century expulsion of the Moriscos, this municipal orchard has been slowly replanted with young date palms and can be visited freely at any hour.↗↗↗
It is not a polished garden with curated flower beds — its appeal lies in the raw, unhurried atmosphere of a working palm grove undergoing rehabilitation, a peaceful stop along the official Palmeral walking route between the better-known Huerto del Cura and the Camí de les Almàsseres path.↗↗
Good to know
- Garden
- Open 24 hoursEvery day
- Under 1 kmfrom Elx center
- 3.0 / 53 reviews
- Elx
A Layered Past Beneath the Palms
Long before it became an orchard, this ground served as Elche's Muslim burial site. When the Moriscos were expelled in the sixteenth century, the land passed to Church ownership, and over subsequent centuries it was converted into a productive huerto — the kind of palm-shaded agricultural plot that gave Elche its distinctive green belt. The historic house that once managed the land was built in 1853 following the traditional rural typology of the Camp d'Elx: a terrace-fronted dwelling with a porch of palm-trunk beams, rooms for family and animals, and a kitchen oriented to the courtyard. Photographs and architectural drawings from the municipal archive document the house in various states through the twentieth century, showing its multiple façades facing Levante, Poniente, north, and south.
