A few kilometers South of Elche lies the archaeological area named L’Alcudia. Alcudia is the Moorish name of the hill where the original Roman colony named Ilici was situated.

The site was settled already in pre-Roman times and grew under the Romans as it was designated as Colonia Iulia Ilici Augusta. Veteran soldiers of Augustus campaigns settled here. After the Roman period the Visigoths and the Byzantines controlled the town. Consequently, there are some paleo-Christian ruins on the site. After the Moors took over, they set up a separate town further north (modern day Elche) and the original town was mostly disbanded over time.

While the site does not hold any spectacular ruins, the onsite museums are quite nice and provide much needed background. The most notable find on display is a copy of the Lady of Elche, a pre-Roman bust with a very distinctive hairdo. The original is shown in Madrid.

By spanning so many periods the site enriches the history of nearby Elche, so I enjoyed visiting.

OUV

Having only seen Alcudia I can't fully judge the nomination. Alcudia certainly has regional and potentially national significance but no OUV.

If Alcudia is representative of the whole, then this is an assortment of mediocre Roman ruins. The goal here is to create OUV by finding strength in numbers; I hope this fails. In Tarragona there is already a similar site from the same region inscribed which also happened to be part of the Roman road network in question.

Getting There

I walked from downtown Elche to L’Alcudia by foot. It’s not really a pleasant walk. You may be better served taking a cab. On my way back, I followed the river bed, a small detour.

While You Are There

Obviously, you should visit Elche. The region also holds some rock art.

Note

Plenty of places in Spain are named Alcudia. The name derives from the Arabic Al-Qudya: the hill.