206
ANDALUSIAN PASSION A great pilgrimage and an entrancing city. by keith mundy
207
The El Rocio Pilgrimage in Andalusia’s Huelva Province
208
n the early summer of Andalusia, just before Pentecost (aka Whitsunday), great processions of swaying wagons adorned with flowers come together in the dusty wilderness of the Guadalquivir estuary, beside Spain’s largest nature reserve, the Doñana National Park. They are on a pilgrimage to the basilica of El Rocío, as part of what is surely Europe’s biggest and most colourful religious festival. Even more numerous than the floral oxcarts and the gypsy caravans are the proud horsemen riding Andalusian thoroughbreds, attired in the wide-brimmed hats, short jackets and tight-fitting trousers of Andalusia, with women riding side-saddle behind them dressed in long, tight, flouncyhemmed skirts, their hair tied back flamenco-style, with a red flower in it. And then there are all the camp followers from the rest of Spain, Europe and beyond, in their SUVs or buses or whatever else will get them there, so that the El Rocío Pilgrimage is today not so much a Catholic ritual of old Andalusia, Spain’s southernmost and sunniest region, but more a hedonistic binge on a gigantic scale – around one million participants – with live TV coverage, booming music and fireworks. It’s a far cry from its origins as a gypsy homage to the Virgin of El Rocío, a return to nomadic roots on an annual journey of religious celebration. But still many pilgrims say the best part is the journey, with its overnight campsites in wayside olive groves, drinking, singing and dancing to guitars and tambourines, which becomes a huge party once everybody converges at the town of Almonte close to the Virgin’s shrine. The cultural and emotional core of the pilgrimage is provided by the Catholic confraternities of
The El Rocío Pilgrimage is today not so much a Catholic ritual of old Andalusia, Spain’s southernmost and sunniest region, but more a hedonistic binge on a gigantic scale.
A crowd surrounds the Simpatico Wagon during the Pilgrimage of the Dew
Andalusia, religious groupings based in all the region’s towns and cities who are dedicated to worshipping the Virgin through the annual trek to the Atlantic coast. It is they who ensure the keeping of the centuries-old rituals at El Rocío, a village of just 2,000 souls dominated by the great basilica called the Hermitage of El Rocío. In this whitewashed sanctuary, built in the 1960s on the site of earlier churches, upon a lavishly sculpted altar painted in glistening gold, stands the gilded image of the Virgin, Our Lady of the Dew. Legend says that the statue was found on this spot by a 13thcentury shepherd; the wooden image resisted all attempts to move it and so a shrine was built around it, followed by miraculous healings of its worshippers. A remote spot on the edge of the great wetlands of the Coto Doñana, El Rocío hit the map, with organised treks to it beginning in 1653, culminating in today’s mega-fiesta. The climax comes on the
Saturday night, as each of the confraternities in turn proceeds to the basilica to pay homage to the “Blanca Paloma,” the White Dove, to give the Virgin her fondest name. Then, in the early hours of Whitsunday, with the celebrants gripped by religious fervour, partying fever or drunken stupor, the Virgin is carried out of the shrine and paraded around the village, visiting each confraternity house, with heaving multitudes of devotees crying out, “¡Que viva la Blanca Paloma!” – “Long live the White Dove!” Andalusia’s most emotional event as well as its biggest, it all begins about a week before Pentecost in towns and cities throughout the region, when the local confraternities have ceremonial send-offs – despedidas – with processions through their streets, lively with singing and dancing, solemn at the ritual blessing at an important church. Malaga, Ronda, Huelva, Cadiz, Cordoba and dozens more all come alive with this festive opening
of the pilgrimage. As the regional capital and biggest city, Seville – only 64 km inland from El Rocio – has probably the biggest and most impressive despedida, with hundreds of participants, dozens of horses and thousands lining the streets. It has a few more attributes too, this city on the River Guadalquivir which became immensely rich from the gold and silver of the Spanish Americas shipped into its port. Seville is an extraordinarily beautiful city that holds within its time-honoured streets much of the rich tradition the world associates with Spain: Carmen, the seductress emblematic of Spanish passion. Don Juan, the original great lover. The Alcazar, an ornate royal palace of Moorish inspiration. La Maestranza, a historic bullfighting arena. The Archive of the Indies, an iconic monument of imperial Spain. Flamenco, nurtured in the gypsy quarter of Triana. Seville is the home of all these things so strongly associated with
T H E M A G A Z I N E
R A V E L
209
The Virgin of El Rocio
Seville is an extraordinarily beautiful city that holds within its time-honoured streets much of the rich tradition the world associates with Spain.
FACT FILE Getting There Thai Airways flies non-stop to Madrid four times weekly, details at www. thaiairways.com . From Madrid to Seville there are frequent flights or the AVE high-speed train, details at www.renfe.es. Where To Stay Seville’s classic grand hotel is the Hotel Alfonso XIII, commissioned by King Alfonso for the use of VIP guests to the city’s 1929 international exposition. Full information at www.hotelalfonsoxiii.com . When To Go Seville has a Mediterranean climate with low rainfall, mild winters and hot summers. The best times to visit are mid-March to early June, in the festival season, and mid-September to November. 210 210
Flamenco venues Los Gallos (tablao), 11 Plaza Santa Cruz; www.tablaolosgallos.com La Carbonería (bar), 18 Calle Levíes; www.levies18.com Torres Macarena (peña), 29 Calle Torrijiano; www.torresmacarena.com Flamenco Dance Museum, 3 Calle de Manuel Rojas Marcos; http:// museodelbaileflamenco.com Major Festivals Holy Week (Semana Santa), the week before Easter. April Fair (Fería de Abril), two weeks after Easter. El Rocío Pilgrimage (Romería de El Rocío), seven weeks after Easter.
Seville Cathedral and the La Giralda bell tower/minaret, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
T H E M A G A Z I N E
Spain. It is a city where history envelops you like few others in Europe, a city whose centre is a labyrinth of narrow streets graced with splendid monuments dating all the way from the 12th to the 20th century, streets which open out into grand squares and gorgeous gardens, offering endless surprises and pleasures, a glorious cultural, historical, living kaleidoscope. The richness of Seville, both historical and contemporary, is astounding – in its architecture, its culture, its arts, its way of life, in a traditional urban pattern and ambience that has disappeared in most of Europe. Yet despite its age, the old city is filled with vitality, as the buzz of commerce and a vibrant bar-and-cafe society mingles with its old palaces, monasteries, colleges and churches. Seville retains a glorious heritage from the centuries of the Moorish Caliphate, the medieval times of the Catholic Kings, the Golden Age of imperial Spain, and the later centuries as the chief city of Andalusia. Four great buildings most clearly represent this history, located in the heart of the old city. Dominating the area is Seville’s gigantic Gothic cathedral built in the 15th century, the world’s third largest church, with its Giralda bell tower which rises 97.5 metres. Spain’s tallest building for eight centuries, this tower was originally the minaret of a great Moorish mosque, and the views from the top are spectacular. The cathedral’s aromatic Orange Tree Courtyard is also a legacy of the Moors. When you go inside the main structure and look along its long aisles and up to its soaring vaulted ceilings, you are astounded by its magnitude and the ambition of its builders. Fittingly, buried in a grand tomb here is that man of great ambition, Christopher
Columbus, whose expeditions resulted in Seville becoming the fabulous city that it is. Powerfully impressive though it is, the cathedral is outshone in beauty by the wonderful royal palace and gardens of the Real Alcazar. Once here, you know why the name Alcazar is given to places all over the world – hotels, theatres, cabarets, nightclubs – which wish to claim a special brilliance. Started by the Moorish rulers, the palace was expanded by the Catholic kings, leaving a series of exquisite halls, salons and courtyards. Dazzling geometric tiling and ornately carved stucco cover the walls, pillars, arches and ceilings. Four-square, stone-built, located right beside the cathedral, the Archivo de Indias (Archive of the Indies) boldly projects Seville’s leading role in the colonisation and exploitation of the Americas [Indias = Americas in old Spanish]. Completed in 1598, this imperious edifice was originally a trading place for the wealthy merchants dealing in the goods coming from the New World; in 1785, after the River Guadalquivir had silted up and cut off most of the ship traffic to Seville, and therefore most of the trade, the building was turned by King Carlos III into the repository for all the important official documents relating to the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Only scholars may look at the priceless and fragile records like Columbus’s letters to his sponsor, Queen Isabel, but for public viewing there are fascinating displays of old maps and pictures. The fourth great historic building, completed in 1781, is the Royal Tobacco Factory (Real Fabrica de Tabacos), the secondbiggest building in Spain after the huge Escorial palace near Madrid. Once housing the Spanish tobacco monopoly, producing all Spain’s
R A V E L
Today the flamenco flame continues to burn strongly in Seville, despite much commercialisation. A living culture that is part folk tradition, part high art, its insistent rhythms and anguished songs lend Seville its passionate soundtrack.
Flamenco dancer
cigars and cigarettes, this splendid square building is where the fiery gypsy Carmen worked in Bizet’s famous opera – rolling cigars on her thighs in the more outlandish versions of this classic story of Andalusian passion. Now it is the main building of Seville University and you can walk in on any teaching day and look around. Carmen also haunts La Maestranza Bullring, one of Spain’s oldest and finest bullfight arenas, located beside the river in the Arenal district. In the opera, Carmen was stabbed to death outside the bullring by her rejected lover, Don Jose, whilst her new lover, the bullfighter Escamillo, was stabbing a bull in the ring. Rich in tradition, beautifully proportioned, La Maestranza is the perfect place for a first experience of bullfighting’s
211
212
theatrical splendour. The fighting season runs from Easter Sunday until October, but at anytime you can visit the bullring and tour its museum which has fascinating displays of bullfighting objects and history, including a matador’s cape painted by Picasso. A statue of Carmen stands opposite the bullring, on the river bank. Western Andalusia is the cradle of flamenco, an intensely emotional art form created amongst the gypsies, long a powerful presence in Seville who until recently were concentrated in the old district of Triana on the Guadalquivir’s left bank. Evolved from Indian, North African and Iberian roots, today the flamenco flame continues to burn strongly in Seville, despite much commercialisation. A living culture that is part folk
R A V E L
tradition, part high art, its insistent rhythms and anguished songs lend Seville its passionate soundtrack. At flamenco’s heart is the duende, a dark, impassioned force related to the spirits of death and creation, described by Andalusia’s great 20th century poet, Federico García Lorca, as “a struggle, not a thought.” Easier to recognise than to define, it inhabits and inspires the plaintive, desperate singing, the guitarist’s rapid-fire playing and the wild yet tightly controlled stamping of the dancer’s nailstudded shoes. Seville rings to the sounds of three kinds of flamenco venue: tablaos, peñas and flamenco bars. Tablaos are restaurants offering flamenco shows with professional, choreographed Seville Cathedral
A man views a bullfight poster in Seville
performances. Peñas are cultural associations dedicated to flamenco, featuring authentic local talent in a more relaxed atmosphere. Flamenco bars are the least formal venues where performances are off-the-cuff, and anyone may jump up and join in. One of the loveliest characteristics of Seville is the decoration of walls and floors with colourful ceramic tiles known as azulejos. Many houses, hotels, bars and restaurants are beautifully decorated with azulejos but the finest place of all is the Casa de Pilatos. This opulent palace was created in the 16th century by a rich nobleman, the Marquess of Tarifa, and its ornate style was very influential in the design of later buildings in Seville. It is open to the public daily. Full of wonderful sights, Seville is also famous for being a joyous city. The people are known for their wit and sparkle, and they put on extraordinary
performances throughout Holy Week (Semana Santa), the Easter festival famed for its processions of men in long robes with tall pointed hoods and huge baroque floats on which sit images of the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ. Then at the April Fair (Fería de Abril), there is a week-long party of drink, food and dance, day and night, where the men parade on fine Andalusian horses and the women turn out in brilliantly coloured gypsy dresses. Seville is a city of great sights and spectacles, but perhaps the greatest pleasure is simply to roam the narrow old streets – largely free of motor traffic – where every bend and crossroads offers enticing new vistas, stopping in a pastelaria for a pastry and coffee, in a bar for some tapas and a fino (dry sherry), admiring the traditional tiled decor, hearing only voices and footsteps, sometimes the clip-clop of horses’ hooves, soaking up a wonderful old way of life.
photo: ©corbis / profile
T H E M A G A Z I N E
T H E M A G A Z I N E
R A V E L
Alternative Pilgrimages
Like a spiritual seeker abandoning the well-trodden path, you’ll have to go out of your way to arrive at these destinations of worship and reverence.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a National Shrine of Mexico in the north of Mexico City, on the site of a 16th-century “miracle”. An Indian peasant called Juan Diego encountered the Virgin Mary, so the story goes, who told him to build a church on the spot. As Mary’s likeness was mysteriously imprinted on Diego’s cloak, local believers promptly erected a church. Pilgrimages have been made to this shrine ever since 1531 and today the site houses a huge new circular basilica, in which the central image of the dark-skinned Virgin is worshipped and Diego’s cloak is on display, even though many people dismiss the whole thing as religious fantasy. One of Catholicism’s most important pilgrimage sites, particularly for Latin Americans, the basilica is visited by up to 20 million people annually, especially around 12 December, Our Lady of Guadalupe’s feast day, and is approached by the most devout pilgrims on their knees.
The Temple of the Tooth, Sri Lanka Seated in Sri Lanka’s central highlands, Kandy is the soul of the nation, the last capital of the Sri Lankan kings. In what was the royal palace complex, protected behind a moat and crenellated walls, stands the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, the nation’s foremost site of religious pilgrimage and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This Buddhist sanctuary holds the country’s holiest relic, an eye tooth of the Buddha. Few persons ever see the tooth itself, for it resides within a reliquary inside a series of jewel-encrusted golden caskets. At certain times of day, pilgrims may enter the Inner Temple, reach the Hall of Beatific Vision, and file past the doorway of the reliquary to catch a brief glimpse of the outer casket alone. On poya (full moon) days, which are national holidays, an endless stream of pilgrims pays homage in this way.
The Ise Jingu Shrine, Japan Surrounded by woods and consisting of simple wooden structures, Ise Jingu is Japan’s most sacred Shinto shrine. Located between mountains and the Pacific Ocean, it stands near Ise, “The Holy City,” on Kii Peninsula, Honsh Island. With two parts, it consists of the Outer Shrine (Geku) dedicated to Toyouke, the deity of clothing, food and housing, and the Inner Shrine (Naiku) honouring the deity Amaterasu, the sun goddess. Shinto myth says the goddess travelled throughout Japan seeking her eternal resting place, and finally chose Ise. The Naiku, dating from the third century, and Geku, from the fifth century, are rebuilt every 20 years in accordance with ancient Shinto tradition. Ise Jingu Shrine’s supreme holiness draws about six million Japanese pilgrims each year, with around one million journeying to attend Hatsumoude – the first prayers of the New Year. Hugely popular too is a visit to the nearby Meoto Iwa, “Wedded Rocks,” two sacred offshore rocks that represent a husband and wife, connected by a heavy shimenawa rope.