NOTE: Also read “2012 Palm Sunday Procession in Madrid“.
I’ve just returned from watching Madrid’s only Palm Sunday (called “Domingo de Ramos“) procession of Easter/Holy Week, called Semana Santa in Spain.
Today’s procession was called “Procesión del Cristo de la Fe y del Perdón” and was a somewhat simple procession with an 18th Century Christ on a Cross sculpture, led by pointy-hooded navarenos.
The Palm Sunday procession started at 7:30pm at the beautiful Basílica Pontificia de San Miguel on Calle San Justo, 4. It was here where the Christ effigy exited the basilica and headed slowly uphill through the crowded Plaza de la Villa (Madrid’s one-time City Hall), where I first took up position at the top of the slight incline near the Calle Mayor for a better vantage point.
After the procession crossed Calle Mayor it headed for Plaza de Santiago where I was once again waiting for its arrival. The procession moves so slowly that it’s relatively easy to get a head of it.
It was from here at the Plaza de Santiago that I made my way home. It was already nearly dark and I’d already taken nearly 100 photos and had to get home. It was a beautiful late afternoon for a procession; skies were clear and I was comfortable in just my short-sleeved shirt.
Today’s Palm Sunday procession was the first of several Holy Week processions in Madrid. More processions take place in Madrid on Holy Wednesday (2 processions), Holy Thursday (5 processions), Holy Friday (8 processions), and the last processions taking place on Holy Saturday (2 processions). There are no Semana Santa processions on Easter Sunday. There are an amazing 18 processions in Madrid for this year’s Holy Week.
See http://www.esmadrid.com/semanasanta/procesion.html for Madrid’s Holy Week processions, procession routes, and other details. Unfortunately, this page is only available in Spanish.
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