Semana Santa in Seville

Seville's Holy Week is organised by around seventy hermandades, brotherhoods with histories running back centuries, each of which processes once during the week from its own church to the cathedral and back, a route that can take twelve hours or more. Each carries pasos, sculpted scenes of the Passion or an image of the Virgin, on the shoulders of costaleros hidden beneath, moving in a rhythm that has to be learned; ahead walk nazarenos in tunics and tall pointed hoods, a penitential dress unrelated to any other use of that shape. Bands play marches, and saetas, unaccompanied flamenco laments, are sung from balconies. The night from Thursday to Friday, the madrugada, is the most intense.

What you actually see

• The pasos - sculpted Passion scenes carried on hidden shoulders.
• The nazarenos - hooded penitents walking ahead of each brotherhood.
• The saetas - unaccompanied laments sung from balconies as floats pass.
• The madrugada - the intense overnight processions from Thursday to Friday.

When to go

Holy Week, which moves between late March and mid-April; the full programme runs from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Accommodation is booked months in advance and prices rise sharply.

Honest expectations

Central Seville becomes impassable, with streets closed and crowds so dense that crossing the city can take hours. Seating on the official route must be arranged well ahead. This is a religious observance, not a spectacle staged for visitors, and behaviour is expected to reflect that.

Nearby

The cathedral and the Triana quarter are central to the processions; the Feria follows two weeks later.