Holy Week
The
centenary and very emotional Holy week of Guadix is considered a religious
celebration of tourist interest in Andalusia because of the high involvement of
citizens and the contrasts in the processions through the historic city centre
and the caves, where the tradition and the faith are merged. Its origin dates
back to XVI and XVII century when, after the occupation of the city by the
Catholic Kings, a new religious order was stablished, favouring the appearance
of the Holy Week. The statues were a vehicle to show the life of Christ, Mary
and the Saints to a mainly illiterate society, who gathered around a devotional
statue creating brotherhoods or associations. The religious orders (Dominicans
and Franciscans) were the main representatives of these associations of the
faithful. As such, the Guadix Holy Week appeared in the XVII, being Santo
Domingo, San Francisco, Santiago and San Sebastián the focus of the
brotherhoods. The XIX century was a period with ups and downs because of the
political events in the region and it went into a crisis at the beginning of
the XX century, from which can’t be completely recovered until the 1980s.
Nowadays, it is one of the most important and popular celebrations at regional
level.
It
is the week in which the Passion of Christ is commemorated and it is composed
of two parts. The End of the Lent,
from the Palm Sunday to the Holy Wednesday, and the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday and Easter
Sunday). During those days, Guadix people enjoy the emotional and devotional
processions made by fifteen brotherhoods which take to the streets and squares
since every Palm Sunday to the Easter Sunday. They are: Borriquilla, Estrella, Dolores, Flagelación, Esperanza, Vía-Crucis,
Nazareno, Lágrimas, Obediencia, Luz, San Juan, Descendimiento, Sepulcro,
Soledad y Resucitado next to the
Cautivo and Rosario pro-brotherhoods.
Their imagery and processions are of high quality, emphasising highly
valuable statues such as Cristo de la
Misericordia , Cristo de la Flagelación, Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza, La
Virgen de la Humildad, Nuestra Sra. De Los Dolores (the old statue of the
Patron) or San Juan Evangelista. All
of them were made in the XVIII and XIX centuries.
It
is a week in which Guadix people and visitors experience intensely the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ,
taking part actively in the processions or as mere viewers. It makes Guadix a
model of the Andalusian Holy Week in those days.