Holy Week in Braga, northern Portugal.
One of Portugal’s most important festivals is Semana Santa, or Holy Week. A compelling interpretation of this annual event takes place in the city of Braga, located in the country’s Minho region.
The celebrations reach a climax in the three days before Easter Sunday, but it’s the solemn and evocative Ecce Homo that is the most dramatic.
A torchlit procession of local priests and hooded penitents threads its way around Braga’s old town. The only sound is an intermittent toll of a single bell. Flickering flame dances off the granite facades of medieval churches and illuminates the faces of hundreds of spectators drawn to this historic and dignified religious spectacle.
The celebrations reach a climax in the three days before Easter Sunday, but it’s the solemn and evocative Ecce Homo that is the most dramatic.
A torchlit procession of local priests and hooded penitents threads its way around Braga’s old town. The only sound is an intermittent toll of a single bell. Flickering flame dances off the granite facades of medieval churches and illuminates the faces of hundreds of spectators drawn to this historic and dignified religious spectacle.
