Discover Elx
Over two thousand years of history
Elx has been located in two different sites throughout its long history. The first can be visited at l’Alcúdia, 2 km south of the city. That first settlement was inhabited from the Neolithic to the Visigoths with a strategic position near the Vinalopó River. It was in the 5th century BC that the Iberian city of Heliké flourished. The heyday of Iberian culture stretches until the year 280 BC when the Carthaginians invaded the town. It is the period of magnificence when the world famous Dama d’Elx was sculpted.
Archeologiacl site of L’Alcudia
In 209 BC the Iberian town came under Roman rule. In the 1st C. BC it was declared a Roman colony (Colonia Iulia Ilice Augusta). Until the Visigoth period it was ruined and rebuilt in several occasions.
After the Muslim invasion the city moved to the present site around the 9th century, to La Vila, in the heart of the city. In 1265, James I of Catalonia- Aragon conquered the city. The Muslims established a new quarter to the south of la Vila known as the Raval de Sant Joan. In the early 17th century Elx lost a third of its population due to the expulsion of the Moors. Growth stagnated until the mid nineteenth century when the espadrille industry began, source of the city’s economic expansion in the 20th century when a thriving footwear industry appeared.
