Basilica of La Macarena

The Basilica of Santa María de la Esperanza Macarena, also known popularly as Basilica de La Macarena, is a Catholic temple located at Calle Bécquer, number 1, in the La Macarena neighborhood. The building is the headquarters of the Brotherhood of La Esperanza Macarena, which begins its season of penance in the early morning on Good Friday with the icons of the María Santísima de la Esperanza Macarena and Nuestro Padre Jesús de la Sentencia. Its construction began in 1941, when on April 13, Pedro Segura y Sáenz, Archbishop of Seville, blessed the land on which the first stone of the temple was built and placed; and ended in 1949, being blessed on March 18 by the same Archbishop, with Queipo de Llano and Serafina Salcedo acting as its godparents. It was consecrated by Cardinal José María Bueno Monreal, Archbishop of the city, on October 7, 1966. The work was completed by Sevillian architect Aurelio Gómez Millán, and it is a single nave building with side chapels. The temple received the dignity of Minor Basilica by the papal bull of November 12, 1966, granted by Pope Paul VI, being the first Sevillian temple to receive this dignity.