Holy Week in Granada
Apartments in Granada: The Holy Week in Granada
Granada is a good option if you want to enjoy the holy week in a cozy atmosphere. Holy Week has been officially declared a “Holiday of Interest to the Tourist” and is one of Granada’s best festivities. On Wednesday of Holy Week, there is a procession called “Christ of the Gypsies” or “Christ of Sacromonte”. Other processions of interest include the Procession of Silence held at midnight on Thursday of Holy Week, departing from the Church of San Pedro on the Carrera del Darro, and Procession of Las Angustias on Saturday of Holy Week.
The Holy Week of Granada is living a good moment. The opening of the brotherhoods, 25 years ago, to younger members through teams of ‘Hermanos Costaleros’ (float bearers) was a breath of fresh air for these organisations with old structures and old members. Nowadays, young people and women are the main pillar of the growth of the confraternities. Their presence made possible the Holy Week that we know today.
The young Holy Week of Granada has always looked to other Holy Weeks of Andalusia in search of models and sources of inspiration. This is the reason why it does not have so many own elements; many of its aspects are adaptations of the traditions of other provinces. In their beginning, the confraternities of Granada took the Levante and Málaga as example. Today, Seville is the main influence. But Granada has something that other cities in Andalusia lack: the power of its images and the value of an unrivalled landscape.
Official route
The official route of the Holy Week of Granada, lately a much debated question because of its length, passes through the city main locations. It starts in Calle Navas, a pedestrian street and meeting point for drinking ‘cañas’ and eating ‘tapas’ even during the Holy Week. The street was named after the Navas Marquees. Their ancient palatial house lies in the beginning of the street. The street ends in ‘Plaza del Carmen’, where the City Hall is and where the ‘Tribuna Oficial’, the place where the confraternities are officially presented to the city, is constructed. The route of the confraternities follow ‘Calle Reyes Católicos’ up to the cathedral through ‘Calle Mesones’, the main commercial street of the city, which is crowded with chairs.
The temple can be seen in all its magnificence from ‘Calle Marqués de Gerona’ that ends in ‘Plaza de las Pasiegas’, a wide square where the local people meet before the cathedral. One of the main attractions of the Holy Week is seeing the floats walk up the ramp to the square before entering in the cathedral. Today, the Archbishop receives here the confraternities and walks with them inside the temple. The brotherhoods leave the cathedral through the ‘Puerta del Perdón’ (Gate of Forgiveness), the final point of the official route.
The streets of the Holy Week
Cárcel Baja
The old city prison was located in this street. When the Catholic Monarchs took Granada the old ‘Alhóndiga de los Genoveses’ (Warehouse of the Genovians) was turned into a prison. The building was soon too small and another prison was built next to the ‘Chancillería’; it was known as ‘Cárcel Alta’ (High Prison). It has been expanded and used until 1917. It was demolished in 1942. The head offices of the ‘Caja General de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Granada’ are now in its spot. As the commemorative plaque reads, the Granadian painter José María Rodríguez Acosta was born in the adjacent house. A wonderful herbs and spices open air market. In 1943 the convent ‘Ángel Custodio’ is demolished and the street is redesigned in order to create more space for the Banco de España building.
Carrera del Genil (Genil Road)
This area was located out of the Nasrid city limits and was called ‘Carrera Vieja’ (Old Road) during the 17th century. It underwent deep urban transformation after the building of the ‘Nuestra Señora de las Angustias’ church. This primitive hermitage was where the tablets offered by the Queen Isabel la Católica to the city. The street was adopted as the main artery of the area, a long space flanking the river that was used in the common municipal activities such as processions or bullfights (after closing both ends of the street). During decades, until the construction of the ‘Real Maestranza’ bullring in 1768, the bullfights were held in the ‘Carrera del Genil’ street, next to the ‘Humilladero’ and the ‘Rastro’, in a wooden ‘plaza’. This explains the naming of the ‘Calle Toril’. The façade of the ‘Rastro’ building owes its elegance to this street. Its interior is not that monumental; it is only a court with a low corridor around it. It also had a yard for the livestock. The main façade was demolished in the 19th century and the whole building was demolished some years later. A mall was built in its place.
Alhóndiga
The Alhóndiga de Grano (Warehouse of Grain) was located in this street in the 16th and 18th centuries. The building had a large courtyard with Tuscan columns. The building had two doors in ‘Calle Mesones’ and another in a little square next to ‘Calle Alhóndiga’. It was sold at auction and demolished. In 1932 an apartment block was placed in its place. Between this street and the ‘Puerta Real’ was located the old slaughterhouse, a big building with only one floor. After demolishing the ‘Puerta Real’ and the construction of the Darro tunnel, this urban space increases its value and the City Council decided to sell it in 1804. The slaughterhouse kept in use until 1833 and was demolished in 1866. This allowed the building of the Marqués de Campo Verde square and the apartment block next to it. Aliatar cinemas, 1940-1994.
Ángel Ganivet
This street belongs to San Matías district and also to the municipality of La Manigua, which was redesigned under the mayor Gallego y Burín (1938-1959). This street was opened in 1943, flanked by arcades, and with the ‘Casa de Correos’ and the ‘Isabel la Católica’ theatre as dominant elements. La Manigua was a collection of small passages and streets remaining from the 16th c. ‘Mancebías’ that followed the walls of the city up to the Magdalena church and the gates of Bibataubín and Bibarrambla. The street is named after a writer and diplomatic from Granada (Granada, 1865 - Riga, 1898). He is considered precursor of the ‘Generación del 98′ intellectual movement. He wrote his vision of Spain through his intern conflicts in ‘Idearium español’. ‘Granada la Bella’ is another of his most important works. In it, he criticizes the drifting of the city into a vulgar architectonic cosmopolitism.
Almuñécar
Almuñécar is a municipality located in the western Granadian shore, next to the Málaga border. Its location, next to the Mediterranean Sea, between the sea and the mountain, makes of it a very appealing place for tourists. It is also an important producer of subtropical fruit. Its origin is very old. It was a Phoenician colony and a Roman town known as Sexi.
Campo del Príncipe
The Arabs called it Field of Abulnest (of the hill). A Muslim cemetery was located there in the past. In 1497, the municipality ordered to flatten the terrain for the wedding of the Prince Juan, son of the Catholic Monarchs, after whom the place was named. In 1513 the City Hall transformed it in a public place for bullfighting and jousting. This big square, located at the feet of Alhambra and next to the Hotel Palace and the Rodríguez Acosta Foundation, is the centre of the Realejo district, in the south slope of the Alhambra hill. The ‘Cristo de los Favores’, located in this square, is whorshiped by the people of Granada. Since 1682, every Good Friday a lot of people meet there in order to pray the ’seven words of Jesus Christ’ and ask for divine favours. The church of San Cecilio, patron saint of Granada, is located in the highest zone of the ‘Campo del Príncipe’ and was a Synagogue.
Fraternities of Penitence
At the present, there are 32 Fraternities of Penitence registered at the Real Federation of Brotherhoods and Confraternities responsible for the processions during the Granada’s Holy Week. Here are some of them:
El Huerto
The brotherhood was founded in 1943 with the church of Santo Domingo as the main temple. In 1948 it moves to the convent of ‘Madre de Dios de las Comendadoras de Santiago’, which donates the ‘Dolorosa’ image. It is the youngest brotherhood of the Realejo district. Many kids went in procession for the first time with this confraternity.
Escolapios
The brotherhood participates in the processions continuously from 1940 to 1975. That year, an economical crisis forces it to stop. It retakes the processions from 1981 until today, with some interruptions. The year 2000 was very important for this brotherhood because Pope John Paul II blessed the image of the ‘Virgen del Mayor Dolor’ in Rome. Saint Joseph Calasanctius. The church was designed by Luis de Arévalo and built between 1755 and 1776. It is attached to the Basilios monastery (founded in 1614). It is decorated soberly but has a very unique octagonal tower with a spire overlaid with tin-glazed tiles.
Favores
It was founded in 1928 and the rules were approved the following year. This brotherhood is created thanks to the devotion of the Realejo district for the ‘Señor de los Favores’. The image is worshipped in the ‘Campo del Príncipe’ and was adopted as main image by a local association in the 19th century. The current images were acquired by the confraternity in the 1940s. Both images got the Gold Medal of the City and the ‘Virgen de la Misericordia’ received canonical coronation the 20th May 2007. San Cecilio. It was built in 1540 upon an old mosque that was used for Christian cult since the ‘mudéjar’ revolt in 1501. The ‘Cristo de los Favores’ represents one of the most ancient and popular traditions of the city; the faithful go visit Him every Good Friday at 3:00 PM and ask for favours.
Fraternities of Glory
‘Glory’ Fraternities are the ones that celebrate their external worship service throughout the whole year in the different neighbourhoods of Cordoba. Their impact on the city is obviously less than other brotherhoods which centre their main activities on the Holy Week. They are in charge of keeping the tradition rooted in the neighbourhoods they belong to, not letting themselves be influenced by trends. There are around 10 brotherhoods and, from May on, you can see them throughout Cordoba, providing one of the best ways to capture the true feeling of the city.
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Granada’s Holy Week
