Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is both a demonstration of religiosity and an artistic and ethnographic show presenting the greatest achievements of our city’s sculpture and crafts.
This event highlights both spiritual and cultural emotions, as well as admiration for the works of art. Each step shows you works by formidable sculptors, from the Baroque era to present day.
The scenes you can see in the streets of Seville will seem immutable in time. This is one of the things that most often attracts the attention of the people who discover Semana Santa: the sensation of traveling through the centuries.
The entourage that accompanies these religious icons is mainly led by the Nazarenes, whose faces are covered as a sign of penitence. These processions run through the centre of the city, from its church to the Cathedral, completing the so-called “Carrera Oficial”, and providing fabulous moments full of details until late at night. The largest historical area in Spain is filled this week with the coming and going of the church brotherhoods (cofradías).
Procession of 54 brotherhoods through Seville’s Semana Santa.
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Some processions are silent, while others are filled with a passionate fervor. For example, the solemn experience that you get when watching the Gran Poder is very different from the overflowing emotion that La Macarena will provide.
The streets of Seville are as lively as ever. Enjoy a stroll filled with the scent of orange blossoms and incense that float through the air.
The city is specially decorated for this time of year for the passage of the brotherhoods, and also for the thousands of visitors.
In Seville, Semana Santa is, in short, a phenomenon that was born long ago that, for different reasons, has remained extraordinarily faithful in modern times. It is a shocking experience, always surprising and will stir feelings inside you, whether you are religious or not. It is not to be missed.
- The “costaleros” are the groups of volunteers and brotherhoods who carry the icons.
- The “saetas” are exciting flamenco songs dedicated to the icons from the balconies.
- Semana Santa in Seville has been declared a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest.
- Musical groups and bands of bugles and drums accompany a large number of the icons.
- The processional marches are themselves a musical genre with some sublime works.
