- The Mayor of Madrid has unveiled the cultural, religious and culinary events that will be taking place until 5 April.
- New additions this year include the 1st Meeting of Processional Music Bands in the Plaza Mayor and the ‘Women at the Organ’ programme as part of the 19th San Ginés Organ Music Series.
- The processions will wind their way through the centre of Madrid from Good Friday (27 March) until Holy Saturday (4 April), with the Puerta del Sol serving as the official route.
- A dozen saetas will accompany the processions, and the musical programme is rounded off with the concert ‘Contemplation: Music for Silence’ and the series of choral symphonic music in churches.
- The Plaza Mayor is hosting an exhibition on five centuries of Madrid’s Holy Week history through its brotherhoods and confraternities.
- The City Council has doubled the print run of the official programme to 80,000 copies and is launching a nationwide tourism promotion campaign.
The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, accompanied by the Councillor for Tourism, Almudena Maíllo, and the Councillor for the City Centre, Carlos Segura, today presented the events and cultural activities of Madrid’s Holy Week. The presentation was also attended by representatives of the brotherhoods, the Archbishopric of Madrid and the Association of Artisan Bakers of Madrid (ASEMPAS).
A programme where tradition, culture and faith come together to highlight the immense historical, heritage and gastronomic richness of Madrid’s Holy Week and the great tourist appeal of this celebration, which Madrid City Council hopes to have declared a Festival of Regional Tourist Interest. As the image for this year’s event, the poster is dedicated to the Cristo de Medinaceli.
Music will be one of the main highlights of Madrid’s Holy Week. One of this year’s new features is the First Meeting of Processional Music Bands, which will take place in the Plaza Mayor this Sunday, 22 March, at 12 noon. For the first time, the bands of Madrid’s religious brotherhoods will come together for an event that will showcase the musical richness of the capital’s processional tradition, with the participation of over 150 musicians from the Jesús el Pobre de Madrid ensemble and the La Lira de Pozuelo symphonic band.
The first of the musical events kicked off on the 19th, with a special concert given by the Madrid Municipal Symphonic Band, conducted by Jan Cober and featuring soloist Javier Franco. The audience will be treated to a selection of pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and Gustav Mahler.
This week also saw the start of the 19th San Ginés Organ Music Series, an edition highlighting the important role of female performers on this instrument, under the title ‘Women at the Organ’. Last Tuesday, the church of San Ginés welcomed Mirjam Laetitia Haag, organist at St. Wenzel’s Church in Naumburg; on Friday 27th, it will be the turn of Saskia Roures, a lecturer at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Castile and León, whilst the performance by Pilar Cabrera, organist at Valladolid Cathedral, is scheduled for Tuesday 31st. The performances will take place at 6.30 pm, with free admission subject to availability.
Rounding off the musical events are the concert ‘Contemplation: Music for Silence’, performed by the Eresma Guitar Duo, which will take place on 23 and 25 March at the parish church of Santa Cruz and the Royal Church of St Andrew the Apostle, respectively, and the series of choral symphonic music in Madrid’s churches, which will take place at the Pontifical Basilica of San Miguel. The first performance will be on Tuesday 24th at 8.00 pm, featuring the Villa de Las Rozas Choir, and the second on Thursday 26th at 8.00 pm, featuring the Gaudeamus Choir.
Processions in different districts of the city
The neighbourhoods and streets of the capital will be filled with a special atmosphere as the processions of Madrid’s religious brotherhoods and sisterhoods make their way through the city in penance from Good Friday (27 March) to Holy Saturday (4 April). Puerta del Sol is established as the main route for the processions, with around 600 seats set up so that the public can comfortably watch the brotherhoods pass by in front of the Royal Post Office. The City Council also decorates the procession route with six tapestries made by the city’s century-old shops, looms and fencing specially prepared for the occasion.
The first figures to be carried in procession will be those of Cristo del Perdón and Virgen de la Misericordia (Puente de Vallecas), followed by others such as Nuestro Padre Jesús del Amor (Borriquita), the Santísimo Cristo de la Fe y la Salud, the Divino Cautivo, María Santísima de los Siete Dolores, Jesús Nazareno and the Santísima Virgen de la Soledad, the Cristo de Medinaceli and the Santísimo Cristo de los Alabarderos.
All this will be accompanied by a programme of religious events centred on the Almudena Cathedral, including the celebration of the Way of the Cross on Holy Wednesday (1 April) and the Easter Vigil on the night of Holy Saturday (4 April). In addition, a Way of the Cross will be held in the Retiro Park on Good Friday (3 April).
A dozen saetas as the processions pass by
In the midst of Holy Week, the unmissable saetas will also make their appearance, filling the streets of the capital with their characteristic melody on 12 occasions between Palm Sunday (29 March) and Holy Saturday (4 April), as some of the main processions pass by.
The first will be those performed by Esperanza Garrido from the balcony of the Casa de la Villa on Palm Sunday as La Borriquita (4.30 pm), El Silencio (5.30 pm) and Los Estudiantes (6 pm) pass by. On Holy Wednesday, Juanelo will sing as the Cristo de los Gitanos procession passes by from the balcony of the Real Casa de Correos in Puerta del Sol at around 9.00 pm. On Holy Thursday, Ismael de la Rosa and Saray Muñoz will take over: the former will sing as the procession of Jesús el Pobre passes by from the Casa de la Villa (7.30 pm) and for Jesús del Gran Poder and La Macarena from the Real Casa de Correos (9.30 pm), images to which Saray Muñoz will also dedicate her saetas from the Hotel Moderno (9.15 pm).
On Good Friday, the singer Fernando Caballo, from the Casa de la Villa, will express his artistry and emotion as the procession of the Siete Dolores passes by (9.00 pm) and that of the Cristo de los Alabarderos (9.15 pm). José ‘El Berenjeno’, on the same day, will sing as the Cristo de Medinaceli meets the Virgen de la Soledad (9.50 pm) from a stage situated in front of the Regional Ministry of the Environment, Agriculture and the Interior of the Community of Madrid, whilst Lucía Beltrán will devote herself to the art of the saeta as the Divino Cautivo passes by from the Real Casa de Correos (10.15 pm). The singer will perform again on Holy Saturday during the procession of the Virgin of Solitude and the Recumbent Christ from the balcony of the Casa de la Villa (6.30 pm). Times are approximate and will be adjusted to suit the processions.
Five centuries of religious brotherhood tradition, heritage and gastronomy
To gain a deeper insight into the history of Holy Week in Madrid, the Plaza Mayor is hosting an exhibition where visitors have the opportunity to admire the legacy and the heritage, cultural and religious significance of the religious brotherhoods that form the very heart of Madrid’s Holy Week. The exhibition is designed as a journey through five centuries of history and devotion, introducing visitors to the origins of the brotherhoods, the sculptures and processional floats that shape the character and uniqueness of Holy Week in the capital, from Puente Vallecas to Carabanchel, via Delicias, Villaverde and the Las Letras district.
Madrid City Council, in collaboration with CEU, has published 80,000 copies of the official programme – double the number from the previous year – which will be distributed at tourist information points, hotels, churches and district councils. Furthermore, since 1 March, a national promotional campaign for Holy Week has been underway, with a presence in cities such as Barcelona, Valladolid, Valencia, Alicante, Burgos, Zamora and Zaragoza.
The traditional cuisine of Holy Week is another attraction associated with this celebration. The programme offers a very special itinerary: the ‘Dulces Pasiones’ (Sweet Passions) route, which invites visitors to experience these days through their palates as well, focusing mainly on torrija, with a selection of patisseries, bakeries and restaurants offering everything from the most classic to the most innovative versions of this traditional dessert.
Madrid’s Holy Week will culminate on Easter Sunday (5 April) with the drumming procession of the Brotherhood of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Zaragoza in the Plaza Mayor, at 1.00 pm.
More information at esMADRID.com
Source: MADRID CITY TOURISM