The Spanish city's 'Semana Santa' tingles the spine, brings the eyes out on sticks, makes the heart beat faster and stays with you long after the last drum has rolled, writes
ROSE DOYLE
Malaga where to . . .MALAGA:
MALAGA IS an accessible, open-hearted city with more than its share of culture, history and good food. It has sea and sand to hand too, when the mood strikes. All mere diversionary pleasures when it comes to Semana Santa, or Holy Week.
Malaga's Semana Santatingles the spine, brings the eyes out on sticks, makes the heart beat faster and stays with you long after the last drum has rolled, the last saeta has been sung and nazarenos (penitents) and costaleros (bearers) have packed away their velvets and lace and pointy hats for another year.
Malaga, along with Seville, is where the Spanish tradition of making Holy Week a celebration of penance is most extravagantly fabulous. I was there last year and I do not exaggerate.
The sun coming out after months of Andalucian rain was a help; rain during Semana Santacan be catastrophic and has been known to reduce strong men who've spent the year preparing tronas (floats) to tears. With the weather perfect, Malaguenos were at their jubilant best, on the streets from morning until three or four the next morning.
Families arriving early to get a spot along the procession route brought folding chairs and food, rose petals to scatter, doves to release and endless good humour. Everyone tells you Semana Santais a spiritually joyous time that transcends religion. It's easy to believe it when you're there.
Beginning on Palm Sunday, tronas with huge figures and tableaux based on Christ’s passion and Mary’s suffering are carried through the streets accompanied by penitents, all to the slow beat of drums and sacred singing. The week weaves its processional way towards the joys of the first day of spring which, in Malaga anyway, is on Easter Sunday.
For street theatre at its most flamboyant, and most moving, Holy Thursday was hard to beat. Hundreds of elite, highly trained Spanish legionnaires arrived from Melilla, a Spanish possession in north Africa, to shoulder the wooden figure of their protector, Cristo de la Buena Muerte (Christ of the Good Death), in the show-stopping Procession of the Cross.
Impressively grim and passionately silent in spring-green combats, those not carrying the cross marched with Kalashnikovs on one shoulder, spades, axes or saws on the other, breaking into their sacred anthem every so often with a sound like a mountain rumble. There wasn’t a dry eye on the streets.
SEMANA SANTAhas been happening in Malaga for 500 years and has accumulated a certain cultural complexity. A few facts: Malaga's Brotherhoods (confraternities) have 70,000 members (and growing), each is dedicated to an aspect of the Passion and their tronas can be centuries old. One of the most revered, to Our Lady of Hope (the Esperanza) weighs 5,500kg, is carried by 254 costaleros and has 110 giant candles.
The trona of Jesus the Nazarene weighs 3,000kg and needs 210 costaleros to carry it. Costaleros can carry tronas for up to eight-hour stints, though 12 hours is not unknown. The nazarenos wear their conspicuous pointy hats to be, well, conspicuously penitent and to show they aspire to goodness and heaven. Women were admitted as penitents in the 1960s.
There’s high drama in the slow, carefully swaying movement of the tronas as they are carried through the streets. The costaleros are allowed stop every few minutes, even allowed a sip of water or bite of a sandwich proffered by family and lovers along the way.
Penitents aren’t meant to be recognisable, nor in any way showy about their repenance and many costaleros carry tronas blindfolded, or barefoot, or with chickpeas in their shoes. They’re not meant to smoke, but I saw gaspers grabbing quick puffs and spotted quick kisses grabbed along the route too.
EVERYTHING'Scoordinated, everything's precise; everything has to be. Tronas and pointy-hatted penitents meet at strategic intersections, ceremonies and sacred songs take place at given times and it's easy to see how a missed step could bring down a trona and its bearers and cause God knows what catastrophe.
To be alongside 254 bearers sweating, swaying and straining under the Esperanza was to look calamity in the eye, all it needed was an unruly dog or an unseen obstacle. It didn’t happen and the fact that it never does is nothing less than a Holy Week miracle.
Actor Antonio Banderas is a famous son of Malaga and, with his brothers, never misses Semana Santa. He was there last year too, helping to carry the trona of the Esperanza, modestly hidden in the way of the true penitent.
Malaga's Semana Santahas to be seen to be believed. There is no other way to enjoy it, or come even close to understanding it. Holy Thursday is a national holiday and the only day Malaga's shops close, though restaurants, bars and cafes are open all hours and food, especially fresh fish and pork from the pig farms in the surrounding hills, is excellent and served in large portions. Most hotels serve generous, buffet-style breakfasts that will keep you going for hours of the processions.
Malaguenos, with a new airport terminal just opened and the port’s capacity greatly increased to facilitate a growing cruise industry, are welcoming and not shy about putting their city’s delights out there for the rest of us to know and enjoy.
3 places to stay
Value:Atarazanas Boutique Hotel, 19 c/Atarazanas, 00-34-95-212-1910, balboahotels.com. Three-star hotel right in centre of town, pleasant rooms, muted décor and well-informed staff. Courtyard and small restaurant; close to train station. Doubles from €90.
Mid-market:Hotel Molina Lario, 20-22 Calle Molina, 00-34-95-206-2002, hotelmolinalario.com. New four-star "luxury boutique" hotel in centre of city with swimming pool, garden terrace and golf putting green. Doubles from €120.
Upmarket:Hotel Malaga Centro, 6 Calle Marmoles, 00-34-95-207-0216, salleshotels.com. This is a four-star, hard-to-beat modern, comfortable hotel with a rooftop swimming pool, restaurant, buffet breakfast and relaxed, helpful staff. Doubles from €190.
3 places to eat
Value:La Posada de Antonio,
33 Calle Ganada, 00-34-95-221-7069. Owned by Malaga's own and Hollywood's best, Antonio Banderas, this is beloved of tourists and locals alike. Speciality is spiced grilled meats. Large, fun, reasonably priced too. Meals from €20.
Mid-market:Café Central,
11 Plaza de la Constitucion, 00-34-952-224-973, cafecentralmalaga.com. Another Malaga landmark, open from 7am to midnight, serving very good Andalucian food with tapas galore. It's 100 years old and worth having breakfast of hot chocolate and churros (spiral shaped donuts). Meals from €30.
Upmarket:Bodega El Pimpi,
68 Calle Granada, 00-34-95-222-8990. One of those bar-restaurants which has to be seen; atmosphere laden with wine barrels, great posters and rough walls and beloved of the famous, including King Don Juan Carlos. Worth it for tapas and glass of wine at bar only, otherwise expensive for small portions.
3 places to go
Landmark: Alcazaba, Paseo
de Don Juan Temboury, 00-34-95-213-5050, malaga.eu. Malaga's magnificent Moorish citadel was built in the 11th century on the ruins of a Roman fortress on a hill overlooking both the city and the coast of Africa. A second citadel, the Gibralfaro, is next door and you get two for the price of one. Below both there's a Roman theatre discovered in 1951. Staff at all three are helpful and friendly. Admission €4. Closed Mondays.
Museum: Museo Picasso Malaga, Calle San Augustin 00-34-90-244-3377, museopicassomalaga.org. Picasso was born in Malaga in 1881 and this wonderful museum shows 155 of his works donated by Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso. An archaeological site beneath the museum shows the city's roots. The museum itself is an interesting mix of traditional and modern architecture. Admission €6.
Religious: Malaga Cathedral, Calle Molina Lario, 00-34-95-221-5917, spain.info. There since building began in 1528 on top of a mosque destroyed when city was conquered. Finished in 1782, so there are Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles to look at. Affectionately known as La Manquita (One Armed) because it has only one tower. Tour €3.50.
Get there
Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) flies to Malaga from Dublin, Cork and Belfast. Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies from Dublin, Cork and Shannon.