Holy Week in Seville is not just any celebration.
It is an explosion of the senses in which aromas, colors, arrows, gastronomy and emotions intermingle, giving rise to a sensuality in capital letters that hypnotizes, takes over the Andalusian city and the many visitors who fall under its spell these days.
Especially when you have the opportunity to visit lace or goldsmith workshops.
The day begins at the CoolRooms Palacio de Villapanés hotel, protected as an Asset of Interest in the city of Seville since 2009. It is located at number 31 Santiago Street, next to the center where the Holy Week processions take place, as they may. be the Alfalfa, San Francisco or El Salvador squares, and yet, it is far enough away to appreciate them calmly.
A saetero appears on the balcony of the
suite
, who with his singing accompanies the steps leaving the church of the Most Holy Redeemer, also called the church of Santiago.
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The Villapanés is one of the best-known and best-preserved palace-houses in Seville.
It was ordered to be built by Admiral López-Pintado, Marquis of Torre Blanca de Aljarafe, the design was in charge of the senior master of the archbishopric, Diego Antonio Díaz, and it was built in 1729, boasting of being one of the main manifestations of civil architecture. of the city's baroque.
Its last owners were the Marquises of Villapanés, until, in 2009, it reopened its doors as the CoolRooms, an appellation created by the current owner of these hotels, Miguel Ardid, as a symbol of the fusion of its heritage enclaves, between history and culture, and innovation.
The interior design project, carried out by GCA Arquitectos with María Vives and Esther Falcó, exalts the beauty of the building, maintaining its regal structure and the Mudejar and Gothic legacy, alternating pieces of international design and contemporary comforts.
There are pieces signed by the French industrial designer Philippe Starck, while the artisanal braiding by Patricia Urquiola in the furniture with the Kettal Maia collection provides a touch of lightness and naturalness.
One of the patios houses the grotesque style fountain where a zero is observed, which corresponds to kilometer 0 of the Silver Route of the Camino de Santiago.
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One of the typical ways for tourists to tour Seville is by carriage.
And to that we go.
It is essential to walk through the María Luisa park under the spring breeze, observing the palaces left by the 1929 exhibition, until reaching the contribution of the city, that Plaza de España, where, following a rigorous alphabetical order, all the Spanish provinces are located with their respective shield.
Its semicircle shape
embraced
sailors returning from America and entering through the Guadalquivir, when the Andalusian city was the gateway to Europe for ships full of American products, unknown until then: potatoes, corn, tomatoes, chocolate.
The Plaza de España symbolizes an embrace of Latin America.
And there is no shortage of the gypsy who performs bulerías, enlivening the morning even more.
A dancer in the Plaza de España in Seville.creative photo team / Alamy / CORDON PRESS
The horse trots towards the cathedral of Seville, an old mosque from the 12th century, which, although it ended up converted into the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, houses the famous Giralda, the minaret.
Three palaces and a Muslim courtyard, the Yeso, await in the neighboring Alcázar.
Here you learn about Mudejar, Islamic art and architecture made in Christian periods, and among other artistic wonders you can see the tapestries that commemorate battles and the painting of the Virgin of Good Air, to which sailors prayed so that the wind would be in their favor on their journeys to the new world and which gave its name to the city of Buenos Aires.
A carriage passing through the cathedral of Seville. Juergen Hasenkopf / Alamy / CORDON PRESS
People fill the street, walk, stop to have a fine drink in one of the many taverns or to buy delicious milk buns at the La Campana pastry shop.
After the carriage ride, at lunch time, in the restaurant of the Los Rincones del Marqués hotel, chef Jorge Cortés has prepared a series of Andalusian delicacies that can be eaten in various settings, whether in the indoor restaurant, the patio the orange trees or the old cellars of the palace, where musical shows are held.
Creamy Iberian croquettes, wild sea bass and, for dessert, orange with cinnamon syrup, orange blossom and pistachios come to the table.
What are the silver chandeliers like?
How wonderful the bobbin lace on the mantle of the Virgin of Macarena!
And the embroidery!
The sculpture of Jesus of the Great Power!
These exclamations are heard among the public that follows the processions.
And behind the steps and the mysteries there is a whole world of artisans and brothers who make it possible.
One of the experiences offered by the CoolRooms Palacio de Villapanés hotel is to go behind the scenes of Holy Week in Seville.
The tour begins with the neighboring church of Santiago, whose importance is testified by the rain cape that Charles I of Spain, V of Germany, gave to the order of Santiago when he married Isabel of Portugal.
After many years in this temple, it was moved to the cathedral for better maintenance.
Steps in the Plaza de San Francisco de Sevilla during the Santo Entierro Grande de Sevilla, on April 8, 2023.Eduardo Briones (Europa Press / Getty Images)
The origin of the processions, says the brother guide, comes from the guilds, from when in the 13th century each one had their patron and way of praying to him.
But in reality its rise would begin with the Council of Trent, after the counter-reformation against Luther and his abolition of imagery.
A Via Crucis was organized in 1561 to the temple where the Cruz del Campo is located, which gives its name to the beer and thus, in the 16th century, image makers of the stature of Juan Martínez Montañés, his disciple Juan de Mesa, Pedro Millán and Roque emerged. Balduque, among others, and the first procession takes place.
The guilds join them, some reach the church of Santa Ana, the
cathedral
of Triana, and others, the cathedral of Seville.
Since then, the brotherhoods have worked the entire year for the days of Lent and Holy Week, which has become a celebration of religious origin but with social and folkloric aspects.
The steps appear according to the age and the color of the Nazarene tunics varies according to the brotherhood - in Seville there are 60 brotherhoods and brotherhoods -, as does that of the hoods, whose origin comes from those of the Jewish converts to whom they hung the San Benito and wore the hood if they had been caught in a resignation.
The most venerated steps are those of the Virgin of Hope of the Macarena and the Christ of the Great Power.
Each step (if it is a single image) or mystery (if it is made up of a painting) usually weighs about 2,000 Kilos.
He emerges from the church on the shoulders of the bearers who stand according to height, and heed the orders of the foreman who directs them.
The sack is a sack made of sackcloth or cotton, filled with wool and wadding.
It is usually white and is strategically folded two and a half turns to reduce the load.
The costaleros can carry the step on their shoulders for 11 hours, although there is a replacement every 30 minutes.
The art of the corralón on Goles Street
Curious name under which a series of unique workshops take place, hidden among flowers and plants.
The trades grouped there go back centuries and are entirely artisanal.
Encajes de Sevilla is run by Alfonso Aguilar Martín.
Upon entering his small establishment, a peculiar noise is heard.
They are the notes of the bobbins that José, the artisan, moves with skill, designing a beautiful lace with silver thread intended for the mantle of the Virgin of Triana.
Alfonso says that he started in this art that he had always loved “head over heels”, because there are no teachers to teach it and the artisan fights so that it does not fall into oblivion.
He also remembers that teams from Tiffany, Bulgari... Dior chose one of their laces for the parade that took place in Seville in June 2022, with which they paid tribute to dance, cinema and Spanish fashion.
Bobbin lace with gold thread from the workshop of Alfonso Aguilar Martín, .
Lace from Seville. Manena Munar
On the eve of Holy Week, the work is multiplied by the many orders from the brotherhoods who want to dress their images with the most beautiful lace, those in gold or silver from Alfonso's workshop, which wrap the outline of the virgins' cloaks with five meters of lace, one meter manufactured per week.
Seville was the guest city of Madrid Design Festival 2023, with the name Sevilla Sombra Iluminada.
Exhibition in which Alfonso Aguilar participated, whose bobbin lace vest with gold thread had an overwhelming success.
If the technique came from the Netherlands and the material was white cotton thread intended for women's trousseau, it was in this city when it began to be made with metallic thread, which led it to be called Punto de España.
Alfonso Aguilar ends the conversation by explaining how brotherhood art is the richest open-air museum, since all the pieces go out into the street.
Their neighbors also try to recover the profession of yesteryear in their own way: what was previously called Antoñito y Manolín is now the Las Ánimas art gallery, where Trini Salamanca and Pablo Párraga create totemic, cryptic forms that make you fantasize about hidden temples, landscapes post-apocalyptic and extinct civilizations.
Goldsmithing is essential in the decoration of the steps and for this there is the family workshop of the Delgado López brothers (Calle Goles, 48).
Ángel, José and Francisco Javier create authentic wonders with the craft they learned from the best teacher: their father, José Delgado García.
For these
silver
architects , although it is called craftsmanship, goldsmithing is a higher art.
It is told by José, who designs the line drawing to make the script and the artistic drawing.
He does everything by hand.
It is like a play in which the scriptwriter, artistic director and officers participate.
The baroque or gothic style is made at the request of the brotherhood.
In his workshop you can see the drawing of a lavish crown, commissioned for the coronation of the Mairena del Alfaraje dance that will take a year to make.
The pitch is used for the molds, and the embossing is one of the most important phases, which the first embosser of Seville, Ángel Delgado's daughter, Inmaculada, mastered to perfection.
José says that goldsmithing has been done since the time of the Tartessians, he emphasizes how the gold they work with is 22 carats and talks about the crown they chiseled for the Virgin of Atocha from Madrid.
Goldsmithing workshop of the Delgado López brothers, in Seville.
manena munar
Night comes, and dinner has a window with a view.
The Río Grande restaurant, whose protagonists are the embers, looks at the Torre del Oro that is reflected in the waters of the Guadalquivir.
Converted into one of the city's fashionable places, its menu is inspired by Andalusia.
Back at the hotel, the angel from the fountain, in the patio, welcomes you.
Later, a massage with orange blossom and orange oils in the
spa is in order,
a penultimate drink in the cozy wooden bar with original mosaic floors and going to sleep waiting for the next morning to draw the curtains and let in the light of Seville.
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