PhD Program in Historical studies
The pasos of Holy Week in Seville
Holy Week in Seville is famous for its beautiful and striking statues of Christ and Our Lady of Sorrows carried in procession by the confraternities. In Spain, these images placed on chariots or finely decorated wooden supports, are the famous pasos (which in Málaga take the name of tronos and that in Italy are called Vare or Misteri). The term paso indicates, by extension, as the supporting structure, as the processional “machine” as a whole. Each Holy Week confraternity in Seville is carried in procession by a minimum of one to a maximum of three pasos, the first two are devoted to Christ, the other to the Virgin Mary (called paso de palio, named after the imposing canopy above the effigy of the Suffering Virgin).
The pasos of Seville are large, up to 2.50 metres wide and 3.5 to 5 metres long. Each paso consists of a chariot (parihuela), covered by a velvet fabric. The parihuela rests on a carved wooden base (often in Baroque style), festooned with flowers, lanterns and torches and candlesticks. On this processional “machine” there are statues or statuary groups (las imágenes), depicting Christ, a scene from his Passion (also known as Misterio), or an effigy of Our Lady of Sorrows. Most imágenes have been built over the last three centuries. Some of them, however, date back to the fifteenth century. Not infrequently, the cofradías that established themselves in relatively recent times have inherited a lot of old images, in some cases dating back to the Baroque.