Palm Sunday in Vélez Málaga

The Tourist Information Office in Torre del Mar had been very helpful in giving us information on how to get to Málaga. Bizarrely it was a Swiss gentleman there who spoke very little English so it was German, French or Spanish as the choice of languages. Nicky went for French and the conversation proved to be very fruitful because, as well as the coach and bus information, he also told us about Vélez Málaga.

Strategically positioned (also just a short bus ride north of our marina), it has been an important town for the Iberian, Phoenician, Greek, Byzantine, Andaluz and Christian civilisations. It also has one of the largest regional Semana Santa parades outside of Málaga.

Rather than potentially battle with the hoards in Málaga on Palm Sunday we decided to visit Vélez Málaga instead.

The historical nature of the town is very evident from the higgledy piggledy layout of narrow streets and the architecture of the many churches, which are the old mosques converted to churches when the Christians took over. One of the overlooking hills is dominated by a fortress and the other by a church, Cerro de San Cristobal.

We elected to climb up the hill with the fortress in the hope of some good views across the town and the local area. Picking our way through the narrow streets we felt we were seeing a small piece of authentic, non-tourist Spain. Normal Spanish life resounded around us. There were lots of enthusiastic discussions (loud), gentlemen drinking and playing dominoes in a garage and a lady shaving her legs in a bucket of water sitting in the sunshine on the path to the front of her small villa. Flamenco music could be heard from behind many of the shutters which were closed to keep out the midday sun and roof top terraces were filled with families sitting down ready to enjoy lunch. We chose to enjoy the views from the hilltop, at the foot of the fortress walls, whilst we ate our picnic lunch and enjoyed a beer.

Having looked around the small fortress, and admired the flowers and plants in front of it, we walked back down the hill to watch the first of the Semana Santa parades. By luck our route down the hill brought us to part of the old city wall overlooking the square where the parade would commence; a perfect vantage point! We had arrived about half an hour before the start of the parade so we had plenty of time to bag our spaces and to watch with interest the masses assembling for the off. Gradually, the square below us filled up with band members, who then disappeared again, children and their parents in various stages of costume (un)dress, town officials, parade officials and lots and lots of TV cameramen.

At 4 o’clock, with ‘the great and the good’ assembled, the band and other parade members emerged from the church. The air was filled with the aroma of incense from small botafumeiro being swung and before long the front of the parade set off. The outfits were fantastic with tall pointed hats, the colours of which related to the day, and the holy image (tronos) being paraded.

The first tronos to emerge was adorned with a palm tree and a figure of Christ. It was made in 1957, is very large and very heavy. Carried by 160 ladies it swayed in time with the music and, guided by 2 marshalls and lots of bell signals to indicate when to start off and when to stop, executed a slow and careful right turn before setting off down the narrow streets barely missing the power and telephone cables strung above.

The parade colours then changed...

... and the tronos with an image of the Virgin Mary emerged, carried by 160 men.

Manoeuvring space was extremely tight and even the VIPs had to execute a rapid rearwards shuffle to make way.

But eventually the bell was rung to signify ‘move straight ahead’ and the tronos swayed off slowly down the street, stopping frequently to give the bearers the chance to stretch their aching shoulders. In front and behind were two windbands as well as around a hundred members of the parade. Most were dressed in white robes and pointed hats but there was also a party of ladies dressed in traditional black lace dresses and white lace hats and (less traditional) ‘killer’ high heels; not the most practical for a 5 hour parade, but they looked great!

We moved down to street level to get closer to the action and made an important discovery: with everyone watching the parades, the tapas bars were almost empty and you could be served almost immediately. We had a very happy time watching the parade interspersed with visits to various bars for a reviving glass of Rioja and some tapas.

The parades route around the centre of the town was scheduled to last about 5 hours and it seemed to us that it was probably running somewhat behind schedule, having made it all of about 600 yards in the first hour and a half. Despite it all being very entertaining, we could not stay to watch to the end as we had to get the last bus back but we didn’t feel too hard done by: we had had a great, very Spanish, day out.