| Holy Week in Salamanca | |
|---|---|
 Paso of El Cristo de los Doctrinos | |
| Official name | Semana Santa de Salamanca |
| Observed by | Salamanca, Spain |
| Type | Religious, Historical, Cultural |
| Significance | Commemoration of thepassion, death andresurrection of Jesus |
| Celebrations | Processions |
| Begins | Palm Sunday |
| Ends | Easter Sunday |
| 2024 date | March 24 - March 31 |
| 2025 date | April 13 - April 20 |
| 2026 date | March 29 - April 5 |
| 2027 date | March 21 - March 28 |
| Frequency | Annual |
Holy Week inSalamanca (Semana Santa de Salamanca) is the most important religious event of Salamanca,Spain. It is celebrated in the week leading up toEaster (Holy Week among Christians).
During Holy Week, 18fraternities feature 24 processions ofpasos, floats of realistic wooden sculptures narrating scenes of the events of thePassion of Christ, or images of theVirgin Mary showing grief. Some of the sculptures are several centuries old and were created by important Spanish artists such asLuis Salvador Carmona,Alejandro Carnicero orMariano Benlliure. Hundreds of penitents orcofrades take part on the parades, either carrying thepasos or walking the old streets of the city with crosses, flags or candles. Thousands of people, locals and visitors attend the events.
The city of Salamanca was declaredUNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. The historic center offers a unique and attractive background for this celebration. The old streets and the impressive sites and landmarks provide the perfect atmosphere for the processions.
As a reflection of its cultural, historic and spiritual importance, Holy Week in Salamanca was declaredFiesta of International Tourist Interest of Spain in 2003.[1]
Processions are the main event of Semana Santa in Salamanca. Every fraternity organizes its own procession. Some of them organize more than one parade during the week, following the Castilian tradition. Generally speaking the processions walk through the city center, from their home Church to theCathedral andPlaza Mayor or surroundings. However, there are a few exceptions that make every parade unique.
All processions have the same structure:
Some processions do not use bands, walking just with the accompaniment of choirs or wind instrument trios such as theCristo de la Liberación. TheVera Cruz walks in complete silence on its procession in Monday of Holy Week.
Typically, a procession can be made up from a few hundred to near 3,000 brothers (Loneliness brotherhood for example) and last anywhere from 4 to 7 hours. The largest processions can take over an hour to cross one particular spot.
Thepasos are the core of the festival. They consist of a wooden sculpture or group of sculptures that narrates a scene from the Passion of Christ. They are carried by porters in a platform or staves. The porters are calledhermanos de paso or brothers of the paso. Men and women carry the floats. A minority of pasos are carried on structures with wheels due to its heaviness.
Some of the pasos of Salamanca were created by important artist and are considered great art pieces. These are some examples:
The pasos are usually ornated with flowers, white for the Virgin and red or purple for Jesus.
Below is a list of the brotherhoods which make penance each day, as of 2013.
The earliest references about penance processions in Salamanca go back to 1240, when the firstpenitents were organized around theFranciscans.
In 1506 theCofradia de la Vera Cruz (Brotherhood of the True Cross) was established in the Convent of San Francisco, following the medieval tradition. Starting in the 16th century, this fraternity run a Hospital and a Print. The brothers also built their own church.
With theCouncil of Trento (1545 - 1563) and theCounterreformationpopular piety was supported by theRoman Catholic Church. As a result, processions became even more important, specially those ofCorpus Christi and Holy Week. Also, during theBaroque period woodenpasos were introduced as we know them today and became essential to the Holy Week commemoration.
In 1615 theCofradía de la Vera Cruz established theActo del Descendimiento or Descent from the Cross and theProcesión del Santo Entierro orHoly Entombment of Christ Procession. In 1616 was celebrated for the first time theProcesión del Encuentro or theResurrection Procession. These celebrations had two intentions: the first one was to teach the illiterate people of Salamanca the events of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. These baroque celebrations were very theatrical so anyone could understand the sacred history. The second intention was to provide an organized penance processions to the sinners. The only fraternity allowed to perform these celebrations was theVera Cruz.
These processions are performed in the present and are the quintessential events of the Holy Week in Salamanca.
LaVera Cruz became very powerful and wealthy in the 18th century. The brothers commissioned to theChurriguera family a lavish decoration of their church that includes three altar pieces, holding in its interior not only thepasos but many other art pieces such as paintings andsilverware. During this century, the fraternity also commissioned the best sculptures for the processions such asLa Flagelación,Ecce Homo by Alejandro Carnicero orLa Dolorosa byFelipe del Corral. This pasos still are some of the best examples of baroque art in Salamanca.
In the 18th and 19th centuries other fraternities joined the processions of laVera Cruz:Jesús Nazareno did so in 1715 thus was created in 1688, Jesús Rescatado in 1860 (created in 1689) andLa Soledad in 1890 (origins in 1645). These processions were celebrated exclusively in Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
In the 20th century were established the majority of the fraternities. Since the 1900s there was an increasing interest in improving the Holy Week in Salamanca. Guilds and professional unions took action and created more brotherhoods. In 1913 the retailers created a section inside laVera Cruz that a few years later would become the brotherhood ofJesús Flagelado. In 1926 the local Chamber of trade and commerce created theCristo de la Agonia again in the convent of the franciscans. Some other improvements were made to the already existing pasos and fraternities.
After theSpanish Civil War 9 more fraternities were created. Since the mid-1940s there were processions everyday from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday in Salamanca. The social atmosphere of theFranquism was very supportive of this kind of Catholic celebration. At the end of the Dictatorship ofGeneral Franco Holy Week in Salamanca experienced a deep crisis. Many fraternities stopped their activities and some of them were extinguished. The participants were so few that the entire celebration was on the edge of disappearance.
However, in 1971 a new brotherhood was created, theCristo del Amor y de la Paz (Jesus of Love and Peace). This fraternity updated the celebration and included the new lines proposed in theVatican Council II. Their actions greatly helped to recover the interest of the locals in the Semana Santa.
Between 1984 and 2019, 6 new fraternities have been created, and many new pasos have been introduced. Nowadays, 10,000 people have joined the fraternities and participate in the processions.
In 2003 Holy Week in Salamanca was declaredFiesta of International Tourist Interest of Spain.
Holy Week in Salamanca features a number of distinctive singularities that make this festival specially appealing for visitors.