PhD Program in Historical studies
The Procession of the Santo Entierro of Tarragona
In 1928 the Agrupación de Asociaciones de la Semana Santa (Gathering of Holy Week Associations), the body that brings together and coordinates the confraternities and craftsmen of Holy Week in TarragonaThe city of Tarragona is part of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the capital of the province. It is best known for its extraordinary archaeological complex dating back to the Roman period, added to the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO., was born. Today, this institution plays a central role in the organization of the most important religious events in Tarragona. Those interested in discovering the secrets of one of the most beautiful Spanish religious processions, the Procession of the Santo Entierro (Holy Burial), may turn to the Agrupacíon, which organizes guided tours of the main protagonists of the event: the twenty pasos which parade on the occasion on Friday, a ceremony which dates back to the sixteenth century. At one time, the famous Via Crucis of Tarragona (declared recently by Spanish authorities to be an event of National Touristic Interest), was celebrated on Holy Thursday. The special thing about this procession, which, in other respects, is similar to the processions that take place on the same day in other Spanish cities, is due to the spectacular similarity between the original setting of the Passion and Death of Christ (Judea occupied by Romans) and the history (political and architectural) of the place where it is evoked: the location of the Holy Burial and the military figures in costume (called Armats, in Catalan) who take part, in fact, both refer to the history of Rome. Tarragona was one of the most important cities of Roman Spain. Founded by the Romans in the third century B.C. at a pre-existing Iberian fortified center, the Catalan city still retains many remnants of the architectural style of Rome (the walls, the circus, the amphitheatre): an archaeological complex which in 2000 was declared a “World Heritage Site of Humanity” by UNESCO.