El Rocio brings together flamenco, religion, and fiesta
Huelva Apartments: Flamenco, religion and fiesta during El Rocío
More than a million people and close to one hundred different brotherhoods enjoy the wonderful festive atmosphere of one of the biggest pilgrimages in the world. Pilgrims from Andalusia, Spain and around the world make their way to the Blanca Paloma Shrine in the village of El Rocío, 17 kilometres from the town of Almonte (Huelva province). The celebration combines religion and fiesta, and is held 50 days after Easter.
Over the week before, the different Rocío brotherhoods set out from their bases in Huelva, Seville, and Cadiz, amongst other provinces, in order to get to the village of El Rocío by the Saturday, and to enjoy the events which run through to the Monday. The most traditional way to do the pilgrimage is on horseback, by carriage or on foot, dressed in flamenco clothing. By day, the brotherhoods advance in festive spirits, singing flamenco, while by night they camp out and organise parties around the bonfire with singing, dancing, food and drink into the early hours.
There are four main routes: the Sanlúcar route, which runs through the Doñana National Park and is used by those coming from the province of Cadiz; the Los Llanos route, which runs from Almonte - this is the oldest one; the Moguer route, used by those coming from Huelva province; the Seville route - this is the most popular route with other brotherhoods from Spain and abroad.
As they arrive in the village of El Rocío, pilgrims pitch their camps and await the arrival of the remaining brotherhoods. On the Saturday there is a parade where they present themselves with the simpecado (the association’s standard) before the statue of the Virgin Mary, while the church bells ring. On the Sunday there are various religious acts and that night nobody sleeps, in anticipation of the weekend’s most exciting moment: the ‘jumping the fence’, when the people of Almonte jump over the fence to bring the statue of the Virgin out of the shrine and parade it around the village on Monday morning. Once the procession is over, the brotherhoods start the return journey with their minds already on next year’s pilgrimage.
During the rest of the year El Rocío is a quiet place which welcomes all those visitors that want to know the center of an incredible passion. But during the event, this village of about 2,000 inhabitants swells to become the third largest city in Spain by number of inhabitants (in 2006, approximately 1,300,000 persons were recorded).
Visiting El Rocío
A.- Apart from its beautiful hermitage, visitors will find that El Rocío is settled inside Doñana National Park. It has wonderful landscapes of the wetlands, and is very easy to find wild horses grazing around.
B.- It is possible to book a route through the eastern part of the Inlands, including Doñana, El Rocío and the wonderful Niebla.
C.- You can also hire a chariot and make part of the pilgrims´route, within a very beautiful surroundings.
Almonte
Almonte is in the province of Huelva, Andalusia. The town is made up of small white houses and spacious pedestrian areas. It has a range of interesting buildings such as Nuestra Señora de la Asunción Church, the Town Hall (16th century) and the Town Museum. In the 14th century Almonte became independent of Niebla and in the following century it became part of the Duchy of Medina-Sidonia. In the 17th century wars and epidemics plunged the town into a decline, and things didn’t start to look up again until the 18th century. From the 1950’s onwards, Almonte began to grow again and to establish a sound economy based on agriculture and tourism; and the town has never looked back.
If you go to Almonte, be sure to visit the Doñana National Park, one of the most important protected nature areas in Europe. It is well worth exploring this huge area, where you will find sand dunes, pine groves, marshland, lagoons and reserves which are a refuge for hundreds of species of birds, as well as endangered animals such as the Iberian lynx. Matalascañas is just three kilometres from Doñana. This beach is almost five kilometres long, and offers the largest number of hotel beds on the Huelva Coast.
It is an ideal spot for water sports, too.
More info
Almonte Tourist Office
Calle Alonso Pérez, 1 - 21730 Almonte (Huelva)
Tel. +34 959450616 Fax +34 959451834
