Before seeing the first procession, I wondered how they would carry a trono along the steep, narrow streets of Frigiliana. I knew the route was a relative short one. It starts from the San Antonio church on calle Real. It then goes uphill to calle Alta before descending to rejoin calle Real and then back to the church.
So after seeing the processions in Malaga, we headed to Frigiliana for the Viernes Santo parade. The procession starts at 10pm. We arrived a little later at 10:15pm. It was too late to see the procession leave the church. It would have been impossible to get through the crowd. So we headed up Calle Alta until we bumped into the beginning of the procession.
The front of the procession.
There are not many places on Calle Alta where you can view the procession. The street is too narrow. We got lucky and managed to stand on a raised walkway to one of the houses. The atmosphere is sombre. Near silence descends as the children at the lead of the procession walk by. The smell of incense in the night air and the warm glow of the candles make it a special occasion.
The tronos are not as grand as in Malaga or down the road in Nerja, but they still look impressive and the costaleros have a tough task navigating the steep, narrow streets. The first trono is of the wooden cross. This is followed by the body of Jesus Christ, with the apostles following in single file behind.
The trono of Jesus.
The disciples follow Jesus one last time.
The largest trono is reserved for Mary. This takes the most effort to carry and to navigate through the sharp twists and turns in the street. This trono would also make an appearance for the last procession of the evening, the walk of the singing women.
The women have their picturetaken before the walk.
Just after Midnight it is the turn of the women of Frigiliana to march. They are all dressed in black. Some of the ladies wear the traditional Mantilla, the black lace scarf worn in the hair with a Peineta, an ornamental comb to hold it up.
Just before they leave the church the street lights are switched off and the whole square is in complete darkness. The ladies come out carrying a candle and begin to sing. As they make their way to the front of the church, the trono of Mary is carried out of the front entrance and watches the procession pass before joining at the back.
The Virgin watches as the women sing for her to save them.
They march along the same route as before. We watched as the trono made its way slowly up to Calle Alta. Then we followed most of the crowd along Calle real to get to the other side of town before the women beat us to it. It was just after 1am and time to go home.
No comments:
Post a Comment