The bust in memory of chaplain José Castaño is located near the house, at the garden entrance and is the work of the artist Miguel Ruiz Guerrero. Made in bronze, it has a plate with two very significant phrases. One of them from the famous writer Benito Pérez Galdós and another from the Spanish writer and film director Vicente Molina Foix. The sculpture was installed in May 2018 on the occasion of the centenary of the death of the founder of the garden.

In front of the west face of the Imperial Palm is the stone bust of Juan Orts Román, scholarly scholar of Elche, his palm trees and his “Misteri d’Elx”, erected after the homage of his family and friends in 1960. He owned the Garden from 1940 to 1958 and, thanks to his efforts, in 1943 the Huerto del Cura obtained the distinction of National Artistic Garden.

Juan Orts Román

In the northern part of the central roundabout there is a bust dedicated to King D. Jaime I the Conqueror, who freed the town of Elche from Arab rule in the thirteenth century, specifically in the year 1265. This king is attributed the first protection of the palm grove. According to tradition, against the custom of the time, it prohibited the destruction of the forest that surrounded the city.

Jaime I the Conqueror

Very close to the bust of King D. Jaime is the mobile sculptural group called “La Torre de Babel”, the work of the Alicante kinetic artist Eusebio Sempere (1923-1985), Prince of Asturias Award 1983.

Sculpture "Torre de Babel"

Sculpture “Torre de Babel”

Two other busts are found in other areas of the Garden: the Empress Sissi of Austria, in honor of her visit in 1894, and a small bronze figure of Federico García Sanchiz, personal friend of Juan Orts Román.

Sissi Emperatriz