Holy Week in Valladolid 2023 will be celebrated from March 31 to April 9. The full program will be available soon on this page.   

Holy Week (‘Semana Santa’) is a centenary tradition that remembers the story of the Passion of Christ. Impressive wooden sculptures that reproduce scenes from the Passion are paraded through the streets throughout the week.

Holly Week in Valladolid was the first one in Spain to hold the title of International Tourist Interest, a distinction that recognizes, among other virtues, the artistic quality and historical value of its sculptures. Here are some of the most important and ancient wooden sculptures (called ‘pasos’) in the country. They are usually guarded in museums, churches and convents, and Holly Week is a unique opportunity to see them just as they were conceived. These days, our streets and squares turn into an open-air museum, wrapped in the atmosphere of solemnity and silence that characterizes this celebration.

Valladolid has been holding Holly Week procession since the 15 th century. Penitential brotherhoods of Santa Vera Cruz, the Secular Franciscan Order, the Sacred Passion of Christ, of Our Lady of Sorrows, of Our Lady of Mercy and of Our Father Jesus Nazareno date back to that century. All of them are still active.
Holly Week in Valladolid is the only one in Spain that brings together in a single procession - the General Procession of the Sacred Passion of the Redeemer - all its brotherhoods, more than 20 and thousands of members. They carry on their shoulders more than 30 heavy ‘steps’ according to the “script” of the Passion of Jesus.

PROCESSIONS YOU MUST SEE

On Palm Sunday, the children's sections of the brotherhoods meet in the procession of Las Palmas, around the enchanting ‘paso’ called ‘La Borriquilla’ (a lovely female donkey). Children and adults, brotherhoods, neighbors and tourists carry ‘palmas’ (dry branches). On Holy Monday you can attend the procession of the ‘Rosario del Dolor’ and see some of our most ancient ‘pasos’.

One of the most touching moments of Holy Week in Valladolid is the ‘Encuentro’ (Holy Tuesday). The images of the Virgin and her son meet in front of the Palace of Santa Cruz, the peak moment of this act. The following day, Holy Wednesday, the processional Via Crucis retrieves a centennial procession.
We enter the great days of Passion Week on Holy Thursday with the Procession of ‘Cristo de la Luz’, an imposing and magnificent ‘paso’ representing Christ in the Cross. That same night you will be able to see the Procession of ‘Humildad y penitencia’ and later, in the early morning, the procession of the Vera Cruz brotherhood (the oldest one in the city).

On Good Friday morning, one of the most particular moments of Holy Week in Valladolid takes place: the sermon of the Seven Words. From early in the morning, more than twenty hooded riders accompany the street crier, who plays a bugle and reads the sermon at different places in the center of the city. In the afternoon the General Procession of the Sacred Passion of the Redeemer is celebrated, the only one in which the twenty Valladolid brotherhoods participate.

The Procession of ‘Santo Entierro’ (Holy Saturday) and the moving Encounter between the Risen Jesus and his Mother (Resurrection Sunday), with the ringing of bells and the release of doves, are the finishing touch to this tradition of tourist and cultural interest.