This is a STEP
1. IF YOU GO, YOU GO
If you are not interested in Easter or if you do not intend to touch it better travel to Brooklyn, to the town of your grandparents, to know the plains of Mongolia or to the Tavir campsite a. In Seville these days everything is Holy Week. The party spreads like a magma throughout the city from morning to night . If you go it is to join her. If not, change your AVE ticket and come back in May, because Seville is beautiful all year round and it won't be too hot yet.
The party spreads like a magma throughout the city from morning to night
two. CHANGE THE AVE IF YOU DON'T HAVE A HOTEL OR APARTMENT
Do not pretend to improvise: this is not Rajasthan and you are not making an initiation trip with a backpack. Holy Week is not improvised. It has not been improvised for a long time, specifically since the 16th century, the date from which all the brotherhoods date. So don't do it yourself. Thousands of people have had your same idea months ago and they may now be enjoying an apartment in front of the Giralda like the ones at Puerta Catedral or Home at Homes or a room at the Hotel Inglaterra, in the middle of Plaza Nueva. Planning a trip does not make you a loser. On the contrary, a reservation on time is a victory.
If you don't have a hotel... LATE!
3. IF YOU ARE, YOU ARE
Ah, what do you think, pitcher soul, that you can avoid Holy Week? Creature… The city is experiencing one of its two core weeks of the year: the other is the fair . In spring Seville has self-esteem (even more) through the roof. Don't try to sabotage it (you won't be able to) by wanting to do things like go shopping at six in the afternoon on Calle Sierpes or tour the Arenal by bicycle. Will not be able. the city turns in the continuum of brotherhoods, about 60, between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Don't be rebellious. Here you come to participate because, in case you haven't been told, Holy Week demands your participation: you are an extra . Learn your role and comply.
Four. LET'S START WITH SOME BASIC VOCABULARY LESSONS
- Don't say processions, say brotherhoods.
- Don't say hoods and make little Ku Klux Klan jokes; thousands of people have done them before and they are not very funny; They are called Nazarenes and they are key figures in Sevillian iconography. Nobody is scared. - When it is said that they dance a step it is because they are, really, dancing to the rhythm of music. That music that sounds like Morricone they are marches . You will notice that people know them and there are some running superstars like Bitterness, bell ringers either Ruby Star. When you get back home, chances are you'll look for them on Spotify. Tarantino would. - The steps weigh hundreds of kilos and are carried by gentlemen called bearers . If you are a fashionista or a capricious Parisian you will fall in love with its espadrilles: They sell them at Cordoba street shops. - The costaleros dance to the step; indeed, they are called steps . When they carry a virgin on top they are called canopy steps. - The Cross of Guide is the beginning of a brotherhood ; since it appears until the whole brotherhood passes, hours can pass. Those hours are Holy Week. Smell, look, touch and eat (because you will get hungry) . What is happening in front of you is a show that has been rehearsing for centuries. They nail it.
If you go, you GO (that simple and complicated at the same time)
5. THREE IMPORTANT WORDS: COMFORTABLE SHOES Y PATIENCE
There is a special public transport device, which implies that there is more. and more full . However, much of downtown streets will be closed to traffic from at least noon to midnight. If there was a rush hour it would be 7 to 12 at night , Except in the morning (not the Madrugada) which starts at 1 in the morning and ends about twelve hours later. If you've heard about how bicycle-friendly the city is, you'll want to rent one. You may, but do it only in the morning and better explore neighborhoods like Porvenir, Triana or Nervión.
Anyway, the best option is always to walk. It is the one that allows you to live Holy Week and go wherever you want, bearing in mind that, if the rest of the year the center of Seville is an Escher drawing, these days it is the same but full of people. Only one piece of advice can be given: patience. Walking and strolling is part of the experience. You will find brotherhoods as you go. It is best to see them in small and narrow streets, but for that you have to arrive before the brotherhood does and wait for it. waiting is important , there is some zen warrior training in them. Another recommended place, although shocking, They are the Mushrooms, in the Plaza de la Encarnación . The contrast between the contemporary architecture of Jürgen Mayer and the Baroque staging is spectacular and totally Instagrammable.
The best views: from 'las setas'
6. THE BALCONY, OH THE BALCONY
Every visitor to Seville at Easter fantasizes about being able to see it from a balcony. It's not easy, but it's not impossible either. If you stay in downtown hotels like the EME , next to the Cathedral or the Alfonso XIII, in the Puerta Jerez, you may be able to access one of them. There are bespoke, highly personalized travel agencies that give you access to private homes and their balconies. Cris&Kim is one of them; It gives you access to private houses and surely also to a plate of ham and a cold beer. The balcony rental business exists; Websites like My Balcony help achieve that dream of every visitor. If you prefer to go it alone, all you have to do is trust the kindness of those you know or those you don't know.
The accommodation, in this case, must be booked well in advance.
7. WITH THE RAIN YOU DON'T JOKE
Don't you dare say that why don't they cover the steps with plastic. The sizes that go out to the street are jewels of religious iconography . The Christ of Veracruz, small and anonymous, dates from 1550. **The Christ of Burgos (1573) ** is by Bautista Vázquez "El Viejo"; **Jesus of the Passion (1610) ** is by Martínez Montañés and the christ of the Love (1618) is by Juan de Mesa. Two of the stars of Holy Week are the Great Power (1620), also of Juan de Mesa and the Christ of the Expiration or the Puppy , as the whole city calls him. It was carved in 682 by Ruiz Gijón taking as a model a gypsy named that way, just at the moment of dying. Or so tells a legend that everyone likes to repeat. The sizes, all, have an incalculable value. Let us think that it is as if they took a painting by Zurbarán or Velázquez out for a walk. They would not put a plastic on them. You don't have to risk. If the sky is grey, the threat is real. The weather apps are, together with iLlamador, the star application, the most consulted. None is more effective than looking at the sky.
8. TEMPLE TOURISM
An important activity in Holy Week is visit the churches in the morning . It's part of the party and a fabulous way to see powerful architecture, carvings, flowers, and country people up close. The maximalism to which we associate the Holy Week (and what we expect from it) arises in the seventeenth century, when Seville, in the golden age (and never better said) in which the city received gold from America. That's when it comes up music, flowers and ornamentation . The temples are in all the neighborhoods and areas: some essential ones are El Gran Poder, La Magdalena, the Chapel of the Museum, that of the Students or those of Esperanza Macarena and Esperanza de Triana. They are a legitimate excuse to get to know the city. A basic is to visit the savior church , baroque, very baroque and that keeps some of the most interesting carvings of Holy Week. It is in a square that, for sure, you will cross several times. At the exit of the visit to the church it is important that order a cold beer in one of the arcade bars and drink it standing in the middle of the square. Do not look for tables or chairs: here you eat and drink in an upright position.
San Lorenzo and Jesus of the Great Power
9. EAT AND DRINK: IT'S AN ORDER
You need energy: you will spend an average of 6-8 hours on your feet or walking. There are great axes of tapas, such as the one in the Gamazo and Jimios street, with places like La Flor de Toranzo, Becerra, Bodeguita Antonio Romero, Torres y García at the head or those of the alfalfa area . You can also leave the center (seriously, you can) and go to neighborhoods like nerve , where interesting bars such as Tradevo, Panrallao and the recently opened Rocala are concentrated, already in the Gran Plaza. Another option is the area of the streets (yes, we have returned to the center) Regina and Feria. La Lonja de Feria is an interesting market, with charisma and yet without totally succumbing to tartarization and cevichization. In that area the bars and restaurants have a more hip accent, but that keeps them out of Holy Week . This festival is inclusive and affects and impacts all lifestyles in the city.
Seville must be eaten
10. A REMINDER
During Holy Week in Seville, they come together, with an admirable naturalness, The sacred and the profane , but, and this is important: this is a religious holiday . Of course, the city has created its own story that does not follow the narrative order of the Death and Resurrection of Christ . Here there are suffering Virgins, Sorrowful Virgins and crucifixions every day. There are certain reminders (the recollection on Holy Thursday, the Canine on Saturday...) that recall the order of events, but the festival has a particular internal organization. Don't try to understand too much: go out and let yourself go . Activate your sense of smell and smell: Seville may be the only city in the world that seems to be perfumed ( with a formula of orange blossom and incense ) from the sky. Sometimes letting go will be literal, like when you find a noise. Do not be afraid or resist. Bullae dissolve on their own and you, stranger, will wonder how. Another tip: do not clap even if the emotion snatches you. Don't you dare . don't say either hey and much less accented on the 'e'. Wait for the Fair: there are two weeks left. But that is another story.
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