This is Holy Week in Badajoz: our experience, processions

After several years having it in mind, we have finally been able to visit the Holy Week in Badajoz.

And although the weather has not been ideal, we have been able to experience from within a festivity that we have loved.

Badajoz it's a city of Estremadura that we know quite well and that we have already visited on numerous occasions.

We have already been living the Badajoz Carnivals, some festivals that we love, and on this occasion we wanted to visit another of their great festivals such as the Easter.

And although it has rained heavily, we have been able to enjoy some processions that have gone out and the brotherhoods inside in the moments when the rain did not let up.

And Holy Week is not just the footsteps when they walk through the streets, but the atmosphere that exists in the city during those days.

That's why I'm going to teach you everything you need to know to visit Badajoz on these special days from a personal point of view, a vision of someone who, without being a specialist in religious issues, simply wants to live the experience while enjoying a few days in the city.

The best things to see and do during Holy Week in Badajoz

As with any Holy Week, the program of events in Badajoz focuses mainly on taking into account the times of the processions to be able to see them.

But in reality this is quite incomplete and we have been able to experience it firsthand.

At least the Holy Week in Badajoz It is something much more complex than reducing the festivities to seeing the processions.

Just like in their day Badajoz Carnivals They surprised me by the intensity with which people live in the city, I have had that same feeling during Holy Week.

How to visit the churches from where the processional steps depart

Most of the processions are in the afternoon, but mornings in this city and on these dates are not for sleeping.

During the day is the best time to visit the different churches from where the steps then start and thus see how they are prepared.

All the churches open while they prepare and decorate the religious images on the platforms of the steps.

And this is something that has surprised someone like me, who, as I have mentioned, is not a specialist in religious issues, quite a bit.

Being able to see with what devotion they set everything up and decorate it with flowers is something that I loved and that anyone can do because the brotherhoods themselves are happy to show it to everyone.

Furthermore, it must be taken into account that during Holy Week there are many processions and each church usually has several brotherhoods that carry out different processions.

And, precisely, being able to enter the churches in advance allows you to see them all together.

But if I have loved something about this preview, it is that when you see the processions through the streets, it is not really possible to appreciate the details of the different processional steps, and being able to see them calmly inside the churches allows you to appreciate the amazing and complex that is all its ornamentation.

He who thinks that the steps of the Holy Week in Badajoz are somewhat minor is very wrong, and you only have to take a look inside the churches to see how impressive they are and the tremendous work behind each step.

What processions are essential to see in Badajoz

If you don't know the Holy Week in Badajoz and it is the first time that you visit it, it is likely that when you see the processions program You get a little overwhelmed.

There are processions with a lot of tradition since some of the brotherhoods are centuries old, others that had been lost and have been recovered, and others that are more “new”, but with great historical and cultural interest.

There are many steps that come out and that is why we are going to give you a summary of what we believe are the most interesting and important.

Processions on Palm Sunday and Holy Monday

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, so from that day you can begin to see the atmosphere in the city.

On Palm Sunday two important steps come out in Badajoz, the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem and the complete passage of Palio of the Virgin of La Palma.

From Holy Monday I would highlight two steps from the same procession that are quite old and have great symbolic value,  Jesus of Humanity, from the year 1707, and Virgin of Sorrows, from the 17th century.

Processions on Holy Tuesday

El Holy Tuesday The most devotional Christ comes out of Badajoz and, without a doubt. an essential, Our Father Jesus of the Thorn.

A Christ with the Cross on his back from the 17th century, which owes its name to a relic of Christ that is preserved in the Convent of the Descalzas, and that, among his gold-embroidered tunics, the one that he gave him stands out Isabel II in 1868.

The pallium step of the Virgin of Bitterness that accompanies it is a gem and one of the most complete of the Holy Week in Badajoz.

Processions on Holy Wednesday

From Holy Wednesday The stars that must be highlighted for the historical value of their religious images are the passage of the Mystery of the Descent, masterpiece of Lastrucci Castle and Virgin of Hope and Most Holy Mary of Greater Sorrow, both also from Lastrucci.

This procession leaves from the St. Andrew's Church.

Fortunately. This year it was one of the ones that she was able to go out and that we were able to see, even though it was raining all morning.

From Holy Wednesday also highlights the procession of the Nazarene of Amparo from the 17th century, which we could not see leave due to rain.

Processions on Holy Thursday

On Wednesday night or Thursday morning, from Concepción church, one of the processions of silence and the ones that impressed us the most, which I will tell you about later, the Via Crucis of the Arrest in the Plaza Alta

Already during the Holy Thursday the star of the day and Holy Week in Badajoz comes out, which is the Patroness of Badajoz.

The Virgin of Solitude, carved in Naples between 1660 and 1664, is a true gem on its superb pallium passage. It is the Mother of Badajoz and the one that arouses the most passions.

Next to her goes the Christ “Amarrao”, one of the best works, from the workshop of the great Pedro Roldan, from the 17th century and the ecce-homo from the same time.

I would also highlight the seriousness, order, elegance and steps of the Vera Cruz.

Processions on Good Friday

On Thursday night, but which is considered Friday morning, the Christ of Peace, from the 16th-17th century, from the Church of San Roque, the other Procession of Silence that we saw, which I tell you about a little later in the article.

From Good Friday in the Holy Week in Badajoz It is necessary to highlight, without a doubt, the Holy Burial with the Recumbent Christ from the 17th century and the delicious Virgin of Tears, from the 17th century in the St. Augustine's Church that we could see inside since it could not come out due to the rain.

Without forgetting the Procession of the Rosary of the Virgin of Soledad which has been celebrated since the beginning of the 19th century and which has a crowd lighting and accompanying it. It is the same image that appears on Thursday, but in a more austere way and without the canopy.

This is what the Processions of Silence are like in Badajoz

Seeing the steps leaving the churches is usually one of the most impressive moments of this festivity, and in Badajoz there are some steps that have quite complicated exits, which gives even more interest to the moment, as happens in the St. Augustine's Church.

But, in my opinion, if there is something truly impressive for someone who, like us, sees Holy Week in Badajoz with the eyes of a tourist, it is its processions of silence.

They are processions that usually take place at night where the lighting makes the moment more special.

By being absolutely silent. It is impressive how she feels and hears the gust of the porters' espadrilles and the hit of the forks with the ground. It really gives you goosebumps to see it live.

We have been able to see two processions of silence In this Holy Week in Badajoz, the Christ of the Arrest and the Christ of Peace.

The first already put us in context of how brutal this experience is that we lived on Wednesday night or Thursday morning, however you want to see it, leaving from the church of La Concepción, during which a Via Crucis.

Dressed in white with large hoods and in a penitential and austere atmosphere, this procession designed in 1988 runs through the old town of Badajoz passing through some of the most beautiful and historical sites in the city.

But perhaps the most brutal thing was precisely the stoppage for 14 stations of the Via Crucis What do they do when they arrive at the high square, which is a very beautiful place in Badajoz with its red facades.

While the texts are read at the different stations, the procession remains silent in a chilling atmosphere given by lit torches that surround the passage.

And the second Procession of Silence the one we hallucinated with was the Holy Christ of Peace that comes from the Church of San Roque on Thursday night or early Friday morning.

If I'm honest, this seemed to me the wildest of all, since it is undoubtedly the most penitential and overwhelming of Holy Week in Badajoz.

After a solemn recollection and vow of silence inside the church, they went out even though it was raining, and made a journey of more than 4 hours in complete silence, in the rain, the cold and, some of them, barefoot.

A true penance that runs through the narrow streets of the old town which left us really impressed; One hundred percent recommendable to see.

What to do if it rains during Holy Week in Badajoz

Knowing what to do during Easter when it rains is something that, honestly, I had never thought about before.

On the occasions when I have experienced an Easter with so much tradition, as is the case in Badajoz, the program is very clear, and if it rains, it feels like it ruins the plan.

But if we have learned anything on this trip, it is that nothing could be further from the truth.

The processions are another part of the festivity, and the fact that they do not take place does not tarnish the experience in any way.

In cities where Holy Week has less tradition, it may spoil the party, but in cities like Badajoz, we have been able to verify that it does not spoil the party at all.

And at this point, the question is clear, what can be done if the steps don't work, but I want to continue enjoying the experience.

When the time comes in which you have to make the decision whether the steps work and it is decided that they are not going to do it, the roadmap changes.

Instead of being the steps that come out for people to see, they are turned around and it is the churches that open their doors so that people come in to see them inside.

In addition, the music bands that accompany the steps maintain the atmosphere, since, as in the Titanic The musicians played until the end, the same thing happens in Badajoz.

This means that the experience does not dull one bit and, in fact, it is an experience that we found very interesting, because you can feel the intensity with which these holidays are lived.