Holy Week in Seville (Semana Santa en Sevilla) see also overview of traditional festivals in Spain It is one of the most important religious and traditional events of the city. It is celebrated in the week leading up to Easter, and is one of the most important religious events within Spain, internationally renowned for its drama.
Religious procession, Seville. Easter Monday

The week features the procession of pasos, floats of lifelike wooden sculptures of individual scenes of the events or images of the Virgin Mary showing restrained grief for the torture and killing of her son. Some of the sculptures are of great antiquity and are considered artistic masterpieces.

The processions are organized by hermandades and cofradías, religious brotherhoods. During the processions, members precede the pasos dressed in penitential robes, and, with few exceptions, hoods.

The processions work along the shortest route from the home churches and chapels to the Cathedral. The processions from the suburban barrios may take 14 hours to return to their home churches.

The climax of the week is the night of Maundy Thursday, when the most popular processions set out to arrive at the Cathedral on the dawn of Good Friday, known as the madrugá .