April has proven a busy month with quite a bit of traveling. Here begins the first of several blogs chronicling travels with family through the north of Spain. Several blogs on site visits within Andalusia will follow.
San Lorenzo del Escorial
Built by Felipe II in the 1500s, the Escorial was once a combination royal palace, monastery, and basilica. It also houses the mausoleum containing the tombs of Spanish monarchs. A true stone bastion in every sense, the building feels like the inside of a cavern at times. One friend has told me that the best possible translation of the name would be "slagheap."
Ávila
Perhaps best know as the town of Santa Teresa, Ávila was also registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the only city in Spain to have preserved its medieval walls in their entirety. Also of special interest is its cathedral, which dates to the 1100s.
Recovering from La Madrugada meant missing the better part of the daytime pasos of Viernes Santo. However, I did make it out to see a couple of pasos on Sábado Santo
Below: a bassoon, a clarinet, and an oboe announce the arrival of the guiding cross leading "Los Servitas" about to enter calle Orfila. ..."Sagrado Decreto" at the same spot. ...I am still somewhat bummed about having missed "Santo Entierro"...next time.
It was clear on Thursday morning that things had taken a turn for the slightly more serious. Normally decked to the nines regardless of the occasion, the sevillanos took to the streets in black. Men wore black suits with black ties and women, also in funeral attire, donned their high combs and knee-length mantillas. The day was to end with a foretold death, and the public prepared to mourn.
The first paso to leave was that of "Los Negritos." Keep in mind these brotherhoods originated around early modern guilds - "Los Panaderos" for instance was formed around the bread makers guild - which were exclusive in their membership and often had elaborate race restrictions. "Los Negritos" was formed as an all Black hermandad, and until the middle part of the nineteenth century was closed to non-Blacks. This is especially interesting when considered alongside the history of race relations in the American south at about that time. It should be mentioned that the KKK based its uniform around the notoriety of Spanish nazarenos, and not the other way around. Perhaps ironically, the nazarenes of "Los Negritos" wear white capirotes (pointed hoods) atop white robes.
The exit of each paso of "Los Negritos" was met with a set of two saetas. Originally something between a tragic serenade and a Flamenco-esque folk song, saetas were originally spontaneous and associated with random observers bursting into improvised song at the appearance of one of the images. Though it's still possible to hear saetas on the streets, nowadays its more common for the hermandades and wealthy persons with prime balconies to invite singers to give pre-planned saetas. I heard several over the course of the week, but these were the only singers I was able to catch in the act.
At David's urging, Flora and I witnessed the exit of "La Quinta Angustia" from inside the Parroquia de La Magdalena.
In observance of the symbolic death of Jesus, a rather baroque candlelight vigil was erected around the sealed tabernacle, which itself had been moved from its normal place behind the main alter. According to tradition, the tabernacle is then reopened Easter Sunday to reveal the resurrected "body of Christ."
The organ played a macabre march in the background...
The last light of Jueves Santo on the roof of the Cathedral and La Giralda...
"Las Cigarreras" in the Plaza del Triunfo...
"La Exaltación" in front of the municipal archive on calle Almirante Apodaca...
"Monte-Sión" entering Plaza Cristo de Burgos...
"El Valle" entering the Iglesia de la Anunciación...
...but the night was far from over...keep reading.
La Madrugada
Viernes Santo (Good Friday), the most important day of Holy Week in Seville, begins promptly at midnight. The festivities start at 12:00am with the departure of "La Macarena" from her basilica on the north side of town, and ends about fourteen hours later when the Virgen makes her return usually sometime after 2:00pm. Thus, the processions go throughout the night, hence the name La Madrugada (dawn). Keep in mind that this round of pasos overlaps with the return of the seven hermandades that make their way through the city on Jueves Santo and another seven that make their departures sometime before "La Macarena" returns to base on the afternoon of Viernes Santo. That means from roughly 3:00pm on Thursday to about 3:00am Saturday morning, there's something on average of six pasos, with thousands of nazarenos, winding their ways through town with accompanying brass bands. Sleep is not on the order of the day!
I should also mention that the Virgen de La Macarena is Seville's most important virgen, and a sort of unofficial patron saint. (Officially Santa Justa and Santa Rufina are the city's patron saints.) When I asked the thesis advisor of my friend David to explain why "She" was so important, he calmly responded with a straight face: "La Macarena is the Mother of God, the others are simply virgens." The mere whisper of her arrival brings the entire town out to the streets and, as I witnessed in person, brings grown men to cry and run after her like children - I kid you not. With roughly 2,500 nazarenos, including a large number of plumed centurians, the entire paso takes about 90-110 minutes to pass a single spot.
Alongside my apartment, David and I caught a glimpse of our friend Carlos in the procession of the stoic hermandad of "El Silencio." Arguably the second most important paso of the evening, the hermandad of the "Esperanza de Triana" crossed the Guadalquivir at about 4:00am on its way to the Carrera Oficial. The subject of intense devotion on the western bank of the river, the hermandad of the Virgen de Triana shares an intense rivalry with "La Macarena." It didn't take me long to realize after arriving in town last fall that I should never to confuse the two, much less take sides in the matter.
From here we made our way to view the completely silent procession of "Jesus del Gran Poder" and "El Calvario," and then on to the Convento de Santa Ángela de la Cruz to witness the Virgen de La Macarena greet dawn to the sound of signing nuns. The band of Los Gaditanos...The return of "Esperanza de Triana" to her barrio amist a shower of rose petals and a barrage of saetas...the palio of the virgen later performed a dance before the shrine to the Virgen de "La Estrella," also from the barrio of Triana, to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the hermandad.
