Documentary evidence of Alicante Holy Week dates back to 1600. This is the earliest written reference found in the chronicles, although, naturally, it suggests that the tradition already existed before that date. It is worth remembering that, as early as 1489, the Holy Face pilgrimage had already connected the city with something so closely associated with the Passion of Christ as the Veil of Veronica.

But let us imagine Alicante in 1600. It was a city of around 5,000 inhabitants, which would continue to grow thanks to its port activity, international trade and migration. It attracted merchants seeking the advantages of its harbour, favourable tax conditions and ease of doing business.

In this Alicante, where the Mother of God was venerated under the title of Our Lady of Remedy, there was a crescent-shaped harbour. Activity was intense: numerous brigantines and galleys loaded wheat, barley, figs, carob beans, almonds, soda ash, esparto grass, fruit and citrus fruits all around us. These were the products of the rich, though largely unirrigated, farmland surrounding the city. Their main destinations were Flanders, Brittany and England.

Alongside them, ships flying the Dutch flag loaded our prized “Fondillón”, a wine fit for kings, as well as Muscat and Malvasia wines.

As we take in our surroundings, night falls and we enter the walled city through the Portal del Muelle, making our way to Calle Labradores, where we come across a Brotherhood. It is the mournful night of Maundy Thursday. The darkness is broken by a procession of blue tunics, like the mantle of Our Lady of Remedy, and the yellowish light of the torches. It is a deeply moving moment: the gentlemen uncover their heads, while the ladies kneel on the muddy ground. We are witnessing the beginnings of Alicante Holy Week.

After 1600, further dates appear in the historical record (1603, 1606, 1753 and 1760). All of them are connected with the celebration of the Passion of Christ.

The Brotherhood of the Blood, the first to be founded in Alicante

According to the chronicles of Rafael Viravens, in 1600: “Between the house forming the left-hand corner of the narrow lane connecting Plaza de la Sangre with Calle Maldonado, formerly known as En Llop, and the building now occupied by the Augustinian nuns, there stood, around the year 1600, a sanctuary that served as a chapel for prisoners condemned to death. The nobility of Alicante established in this small church a Brotherhood named the Most Pure Blood of Christ, after the name of that hermitage, in which there was an image of Our Lady of Solitude. Every Good Friday, the procession of the Burial of Christ departed from the Hermitage of the Blood, attended by the City Council and members of the nobility. Such was the devotion of the people to this sanctuary that they made efforts to have the Augustinian Canonesses establish their convent there…”

This image of Our Lady of Solitude was deeply venerated. The sick believed they could be cured by touching the veil or the rosary hanging from her small, delicate hands. Sailors invoked her protection so that they would not fall captive to pirates. So numerous were the favours attributed to her that the people eventually replaced the title of Solitude with that of Our Lady of the Sailors.

Over the course of four centuries, this image has suffered two serious acts of desecration. The first occurred during the English invasion, when it was rescued from among the filth and rubble on 8 August 1706. The second took place in 1931, when its remains were found among a heap of ashes and debris. To this day, her face, and particularly her eyes, bear the marks of those events.

According to the “Chrónica” by Dean Bendicho, we know that the Brotherhood of the “Blood of Christ” was established in the Convent of the Augustinian Canonesses. It enjoyed the protection of the City, “which supports it by ordering its officials and councillors to attend and accompany the procession held by the Brotherhood on Good Friday, each carrying a white wax candle paid for by the City”.

However, in light of the information contained in the “Book of the Foundation” of the Convent of the Blood of Christ in the city of Alicante, it is clear that this Brotherhood existed before the convent was founded.

The foundation document states that, at the beginning of the 17th century, some religious figures and gentlemen arranged a meeting in the City Hall with several municipal councillors, the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church, and other gentlemen. Their purpose was to express their concern and propose that “a convent of nuns be established in this city, so that they might fulfil their good intentions without being obliged to leave their homeland, given the difficulties and inconveniences that such a course of action would entail”.

After considering the reasons presented, it was decided that the convent should be built, that it should be subject to the Ordinary, and that the Bishop of Orihuela, Don Andrés Balaguer, should be asked for permission, including authorisation to determine the religious order to which it would belong. The appointed representatives were Dean Miguel Zaragoza; Canon and Commissioner of the Holy Inquisition Tomás Pérez; Canon and Vicar Jaime Galante; Father Master Fray Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios, of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; Don Juan Vich, Governor’s Bailiff of Orihuela; and the gentleman Jerónimo Vallebrera.

During the pastoral visit made by the Bishop to the city of Alicante in April 1606, he granted the requested permission and imposed several conditions. These were subsequently recorded in the official document received by the notary Don Juan Torres on 16 May 1606, granting powers to Canon Pedro Ivarra and Jerónimo Vallebrera to establish the monastery on his behalf, bring the founding nuns from the Monastery of San Cristóbal in Valencia, and purchase the house or houses required, together with any other necessary items for the foundation.

In accordance with the agreement, they gathered the stewards and members of the Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ and “asked them for the church and the other houses belonging to the said Brotherhood, as the most suitable place in which to establish the monastery. All of them, unanimously and in agreement, consented to this just request and donated the property for that purpose, subject to certain conditions, as recorded in a document drawn up before Francisco Pérez, notary”.

On 16 July 1606, the founding nuns arrived, and on the 18th of the same month and year they took up residence in what would become known as the Convent of the Blood of Christ.

All the foregoing suggests that the Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ in Alicante may have originated in the 16th century, although its exact date of foundation remains unknown. If the convent was founded in 1606 and the Brotherhood already owned a church and adjoining houses, it is clear that it had long possessed an administrative structure — the Book of the Foundation refers to the existence of a body of stewards — as well as religious services and ceremonies in honour of the images of Ecce Homo and Our Lady of Solitude. This also supports the statement recorded by Viravens in his chronicle, which says that “around the year 1600 there was a sanctuary that served as a chapel for prisoners condemned to death”.

Another clue that helps us establish the existence of this Brotherhood of the Blood is the devotion to this religious title throughout the Kingdom of Valencia. It was linked to the revival of the companies of flagellants who accompanied Saint Vincent Ferrer on his journeys and preaching missions. It is worth remembering that Saint Vincent Ferrer preached in Alicante in 1411. A copy has been found of the document by which the Royal, Most Illustrious Archconfraternity of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, founded on 11 April 1411 in Murcia, states the following: “We grant a share in all the works pleasing to God performed by our Archconfraternity, and in all its spiritual treasury, to the Ancient Royal Brotherhood of the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, now known as the Brotherhood of Our Lord Jesus Christ Divine Love of Alicante. By virtue of this Spiritual Affiliation, we pray to Our Lord God that, through His Most Precious Blood, the merits of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and those of our forebears who were members of the Brotherhood of the Precious Blood — Saint Vincent Ferrer, Saint Joseph Oriol, Saint Anthony Mary Claret and Blessed Juan de Ribera — this sister corporation of ours, united with us in the Redeeming Blood of Jesus Christ, may share in the aforementioned spiritual benefits”.

This coincided with the rise of the Brotherhoods of the True Cross in Castile and Andalusia, which venerated the relic of the Lignum Crucis. From the 15th century onwards, devotion to the Blood of Christ also began to spread throughout the Kingdom of Valencia.

In his work Ilice Ilustrada, Juan Bautista Maltés gives a detailed account of the devotion in Alicante to the images of the Convent of the Blood: Ecce Homo — an iconography that in the Kingdom of Valencia represented devotion to the Most Holy Blood of Christ, as was the case in Manises, Pego and Elche — and Our Lady of Solitude, “La Marinera”.

A remarkable event that took place in Mislata is said to lie at the origin of devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. After this feast spread to Valencia, a Brotherhood was founded in the parish of Saint Michael and Saint Dionysius, in the suburb of Villa Nueva. Its statutes were approved on 15 March 1535 by Gaspar Rubió, Doctor of Canon Law and Vicar General. Pope Paul III established its feast by a Bull dated 14 April 1540. The foundation of this Brotherhood has also been documented in several towns throughout the Kingdom of Valencia.

The Maundy Thursday Procession. The Brotherhood of the Most Holy Christ of the Good Death and Our Lady of Sorrows. Our Lady of Remedy.

To speak of the origins of the Brotherhood of the Good Death is to refer to the penitential procession that took place through the streets of our city on Maundy Thursday 1603, as mentioned by Federico Sala Seva in his book “Notable Events of the Church of Saint Nicholas of Alicante”.

Both this book and “La Perla de Alicante” by Modesto Nájera (1927), the “Chronicle of Alicante” by Dean Vicente Bendicho (1640), and the “Letters” preserved in the Archives of Saint Nicholas mention the procession held on Maundy Thursday 1603 by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Remedy. More than 120 penitents took part, wearing blue robes, “which edified the entire city”.

This information was used to obtain papal approval in Rome for the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Remedy as an “association of the faithful established for the performance of works of piety or charity and for the promotion and splendour of public worship” (Codex Iuris Canonici, cc. 707). A letter dated 2 April 1603 was therefore sent to Canon Don Nicolás Martínez Clavero, who was then in the Eternal City.

Indeed, on 31 May 1603, just one month later, canonical approval was granted by Pope Clement VIII.

The procession was organised and departed from the same cloister. It is particularly significant that the present-day Brotherhood of the Good Death also begins its penitential procession from the Cloister of Saint Nicholas.

During the 18th century (1753–1765), this procession continued to take place. In 1760, the Chapter itself reprimanded several penitents “who were not properly dressed in their robes during the Procession of the Holy Christ”, ordering that, for the following year, any members wishing to remain in the Brotherhood should have their robes ready six months before Holy Week.

As recorded in the Chapter’s decisions, the procession was attended by a Municipal Commission presided over by the Chief Mayor, several members of the clergy and, in some years, representatives of the city’s guilds were also invited.

The Holy Christ referred to was the image kept in the sacristy of the Co-Cathedral of Saint Nicholas.

There is no record of any specific reason for the disappearance of this Maundy Thursday procession. Its absence left Alicante Holy Week with what was then the “only” procession, held on Good Friday afternoon and known as the “Procession of the Burial”. During this procession, the other images of the Passion accompanied the Holy Sepulchre. The Procession of the Burial departed, at least from the year 1600 onwards, from what had been Alicante’s first Christian church, Saint Mary.

The Foundation of the Brotherhood of the Good Death

In 1927, a group of young men requested and obtained permission from the Chapter of Saint Nicholas to take the image of the Christ of the Good Death in procession on Maundy Thursday night and to take part in the Procession of the Burial on Good Friday afternoon. Shortly afterwards, it was canonically established as the Brotherhood of the Most Holy Christ of the Good Death.

On Maundy Thursday 1927, at 10:00 p.m., the float bearing the image of the Christ of the Good Death emerged through the Black Door of the Collegiate Church of Saint Nicholas and made its way to Saint Mary, where it would take part in the Procession of the Burial the following day.

The procession was arranged in the following order: banner, faithful, supporting members, ladies wearing Spanish mantillas, members wearing processional robes or Nazarene attire, the float of the Most Holy Christ of the Good Death, and the ecclesiastical presidency.

Over time, the Brotherhood became independent and began its own procession, held exclusively on Maundy Thursday night.

The original design of the penitents’ robes consisted of black velvet tunics, with matching pointed hoods and a scapular bearing a red cross with the monogram of Christ. The robe was fastened at the waist with a red silk cord. The cape, gloves and socks were also red. The outfit was completed with black patent leather shoes and silver buckles.

Today, the colours have been retained, although the materials have changed over time.

It was in 1940 that the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows became affiliated with the Brotherhood of the Christ of the Good Death. As a result, from that year onwards, the image of Our Lady of Sorrows, also popularly known as the Virgin of the Rock, began to take part in the Maundy Thursday night procession, instead of the Good Friday afternoon procession, in which it had participated from 1893 until 1931.

El Crist del Rosari

This was the name given to the image which, on Good Friday 1854, would come to be known as the Most Holy Christ of the Good Death.

From 1597, when the Dominicans took possession of the convent and church, our ancestors knew them as “els frares del rosari” — the friars of the rosary. The image of the crucified Christ that they installed in the church on Calle Mayor, near the present-day Pasaje de Amérigo, became known as “El Crist del Rosari”.

According to the account given by Gonzalo Vidal, this sculpture was donated to the Dominicans together with the right of ownership. Although he considers Bishop Saragosa to be the most likely donor, he also examines the possibility that it may have been Don Andrés Balaguer or Don Acacio March. Both were bishops of Orihuela.

As for the identity of the sculptor, no documentation has survived, and two theories have emerged. Some maintain that the image is the work of Nicolás de Bussi (Vicente Martínez Morella and Federico Sala Seva), while others attribute it to an anonymous woodcarver (Gonzalo Vidal Tur). What is certain is that this is a magnificent sculpture which became the property of the Collegiate Church of Saint Nicholas in 1851, following the exclaustration of 1836 and the subsequent State order to demolish the Dominican church. After the latest studies carried out during its most recent restoration, the previous theories have been ruled out and the image has been catalogued as the work of an anonymous 16th-century artist.

After being transferred from the Dominican church to Saint Nicholas, the image remained in storage in the Chapter House until the late Abbot Penalva moved it to the cloister and later into the church itself. In 1948, the Most Holy Christ of the Good Death, El Crist del Rosari, was installed in its own chapel. The architect Don Juan Vidal Ramos, then President of the Brotherhood, was responsible for decorating it with ashlar-style wall panels and austere ornamentation. The Bishop of the Diocese, Dr Don José García Goldáraz, blessed the chapel. It is enclosed by an ornate wrought-iron grille made by Marcos Pérez in 1741, originally from the old choir of the Collegiate Church.

In the right-hand corner at the back of the chapel stands the First Stone of the present-day church, blessed on 9 March 1616.

From that day, 7 November 1948, the former Chapel of the Souls became the Chapel of the Most Holy Christ of the Good Death.

Bendicho also records that a penitential procession took place on Maundy Thursday 1603:

(…) “from its chapel and cloister, after the prayers, a large and devout procession of lights and blue tunics departs on Maundy Thursday, inspired by the blue mantle in which the Virgin is usually depicted and dressed, according to the decree of a council. The Brotherhood’s emblem is a white cross, similar to those worn by the commanders or religious knights of Saint John”.

Bendicho takes this information from the letter sent by the Chapter to obtain papal approval in Rome for the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Remedy as an “association of the faithful established for the performance of works of piety or charity and for the promotion and splendour of public worship”. A letter dated 2 April 1603 was therefore sent to Canon Don Nicolás Martínez Clavero, who was then in the Eternal City: “Our Brotherhood has held a procession of more than 120 penitents wearing blue robes, which has greatly edified this entire city”.

Indeed, on 31 May 1603, just one month later, canonical approval was granted by Pope Clement VIII.

During the 18th century (1753–1765), this procession continued to take place. In 1760, the Chapter itself reprimanded several penitents “who were not properly dressed in their robes during the Procession of the Holy Christ”, ordering that, for the following year, any members wishing to remain in the Brotherhood should have their robes ready six months before Holy Week.

As recorded in the Chapter’s decisions, the procession was attended by a Municipal Commission presided over by the Chief Mayor, several members of the clergy and, in some years, representatives of the city’s guilds were also invited.

There is no record of any specific reason for the disappearance of this Maundy Thursday procession, which left Alicante Holy Week with the “only” procession held on Good Friday afternoon, known as the “Procession of the Burial”. During this procession, the other images of the Passion accompanied the Holy Sepulchre. The Procession of the Burial departed from what had been Alicante’s first Christian church, Saint Mary, at least from the year 1600 onwards.

From the Statutes for the Government of the City of Alicante under Charles II to the Report on Brotherhoods Requested by Charles III (1669–1770)

The regulations granted to the City of Alicante by King Charles II on 18 December 1669 established the expenditure allocated to candles. With regard to Holy Week, the last of the Habsburg monarchs decreed that “each of the City’s officials, the Governor and the Bailiff, who take part in the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday processions, shall be provided with one large candle weighing four pounds of wax”.

The Report on Brotherhoods, Guilds and Other Types of Associations, requested by Charles III and sent by the President of the Council, the Count of Aranda, on 28 September 1770, reveals that among the annual income collected by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Remedy through rents and alms, it was recorded that “Mass is celebrated every Saturday, and the lighting of the chapel is paid for on all feast days and church celebrations, as well as on Maundy Thursday, including the candles for the canons taking part in the procession”.

The same report also mentions the participation of another Brotherhood in the Holy Week processions: the Brotherhood of Saint Peter. It originated within a guild association based at the former Convent of Saint Francis. Made up of members of the sailors’ guild, the Brotherhood had a total of 160 members at the time.

This guild association covered its expenses through a contribution known as the “tacha”, since members did not pay any membership fee when joining. “For every Valencian real of twelve quarters earned by each member of the said Brotherhood through boat work, fishing, voyages and any other occupation proper to sailors, two maravedís are contributed to the common fund of the tacha in some years, and four in others, as determined”.

Among the Brotherhood’s annual expenses, a sum of thirty pesos was set aside for the processions and the candles used on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Therefore, during the 17th and 18th centuries, penitential processions continued to be concentrated on these two days of Holy Week.

From the Guilds of Yesterday to Today’s Communities

In their book “Els gremis medievals en les fonts oficials. El fons de la Governació del Regne de València en temps d’Alfons el Magnànim (1417–1458)”48, Jaume Castillo and Luis Pablo Martínez show that the surviving Valencian documentation concerning the world of work and its institutional organisation does not fit neatly into the single category of “guild”, as defined by traditional historiography and its stereotypical classification.

In the medieval Kingdom of Valencia, two institutional realities can be identified: trades and brotherhoods. The “trade” brought together all the artisans belonging to the same productive sector and performed economic, technical and professional functions, as well as political representation. Alongside it was the “Brotherhood” or “Almoina”, which specialised in charitable and welfare activities and had a strong religious character. In practice, the boundaries between these two institutions were very blurred, sometimes giving rise to serious corporate disputes.

Jaume Castillo and Luis Pablo Martínez observe that, under the privilege granted by John I in 1392, the butchers’ “almoina” enjoyed freedom of assembly. Nevertheless, they found twelve permits issued by the Governor of the Kingdom authorising butchers to meet between 1420 and 1457. A closer examination of these permits revealed that, in every case, the authorisation was granted at the request of the “procuradors, majorals” and other representatives of the “Butchers’ Trade”, rather than the “Almoina of the Butchers’ Trade”.

All this demonstrates that, in the medieval Kingdom of Valencia, the government exercised strict control over trade guilds. They did not enjoy freedom of assembly or freedom of expression during their meetings. By contrast, the “almoines” or “brotherhoods” did enjoy this privilege.

It is within this context that the origins and distinctive character of the Holy Week processional procession can be understood. It emerged as an expression of popular faith when, from the late 14th or early 15th century onwards, the craft guilds of medieval towns founded penitential Brotherhoods and Guilds. These organised processions of flagellants who performed acts of penance as a sign of repentance around the time of Holy Week.

Throughout the 16th century, these processions established regular penitential stations and reached their peak following the Council of Trent and the triumph of the Counter-Reformation mindset, which encouraged outward expressions of faith.

The Holy Week penitential procession took its definitive form during the 17th century, in the Baroque period. Its distinctive character and aesthetic, which have been passed down to the present day, are therefore unmistakably Baroque, a style reflected in all the elements that make up the procession.

As Isidoro Moreno, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Seville, points out, Brotherhoods and Guilds have historically provided settings in which two phenomena have taken place. On the one hand, a high degree of consensus has emerged among groups that are objectively opposed within the social structure and occupy unequal positions in power relations, united around the same symbols and participation in the same rituals. On the other hand, these associations have provided an expression, not always conscious, of the contradictions, tensions and conflicts that genuinely exist within the social structure. An example can be found in the black slaves of Seville and other Andalusian cities, who, from the 15th to the 18th centuries, competed and even took legal action against their masters to defend their associative rights and symbolic privileges, sometimes even managing to humiliate them.

Moreover, during the Counter-Reformation, was there any other way, beyond membership of Brotherhoods and Guilds, for converts from Judaism, former Moriscos and other individuals suspected of political or ideological unorthodoxy to be recognised as “respectable” citizens?

It is clear that, throughout history, established powers have attempted to take centre stage in public celebrations, control them and turn them into a means of reproducing the social order. This became particularly evident from the mid-18th century onwards, when many associations began to escape the control of the authorities. This was not so much the result of a deliberate desire to do so, but rather because, with the emergence of Enlightenment ideology and the beginning of what is generally known as the transition from the Old Regime to the New Regime, political power, supported by the higher levels of the Church, was already promoting other means of extending and strengthening its control over every sector of society.

Thus, in 1770, the Count of Aranda, President of the Council of Castile, acting on behalf of King Charles III, requested a census of the existing Brotherhoods and Guilds, as mentioned in section 1.3, together with details of their official approval and the expenses incurred in their religious services and celebrations. Underlying this request were the tax-collection interests of the public treasury. It was argued that paying contributions to these associations could prevent people from meeting their own family maintenance obligations and could even have consequences for the State.

All this led to the dissolution of Brotherhoods and Guilds, with the exception of those whose purpose was to provide assistance to inmates in prisons and hospitals, and sacramental brotherhoods responsible for worship in parish churches.

A period of instability therefore began for Brotherhoods and Guilds. Some important celebrations were banned by bishops, in close agreement with the political authorities, who shared a similar outlook and, in many cases, belonged to the same families.

A clear example can be seen in 1777, when events in Seville under Archbishop Francisco Delgado y Venegas ran parallel to those taking place in Alicante under Bishop Tormo.

Both invoked the Royal Decree of 20 February, issued by Charles III, to prevent excesses and misguided forms of piety that could lead to irreverence and disorder.

It was during the political stabilisation of the mid-19th century that ideological conservatism, on the one hand, and emerging commercial interests, on the other, brought about a revival of Brotherhoods, Guilds and other associations, which were reorganised and given new meanings and functions. This even led to municipal subsidies, under the famous principle that “he who pays the piper calls the tune”.

Today, Brotherhoods and Guilds provide settings and occasions in which collective identities and forms of belonging are reaffirmed, reproduced and redefined. This identity-building role stands in contrast to the instrumental function that political and ideological groups in power seek to impose on them. It also clashes with the role that the Market attempts to assign to them, turning them into spectacles for consumption and tourist attraction.

The growth of Alicante Holy Week in recent years reflects the strengthening of various forms of collective identity. Through participation in the processions — whether as participants or as spectators — individuals, social groups, neighbourhoods and other communities within the life of our city reaffirm their identities, establish a sense of belonging or compete with one another. This explains why certain Brotherhoods are closely associated with particular neighbourhoods: the Flagellation with San Blas, Piety and Charity with Benalúa, Mater Desolata with Carolinas, Morenet with Raval Roig, Santa Cruz with the neighbourhood of the same name, and Great Power with San Antón. Others bring together educational communities, such as the Last Supper with the Salesians, Ecce Homo with the Franciscans and Jesus Stripped of His Garments with the Augustinians. There are also Brotherhoods formed by healthcare professionals (the Arrest of Jesus), members of the legal profession (Divine Love), bank employees (Our Father Jesus), shopkeepers from the city centre (Humility and Patience), public servants (the Triumphant Entry of Jesus), and even one that brings together the city’s Holy Week celebrations with its official festivities (Our Lady of Joy).

We can therefore see that Alicante Holy Week brings together a wide range of communities from the city’s social fabric. Each group identifies itself as such and expresses its own understanding of its identity, its distinctive character, its differences and the role it fulfils — or believes it fulfils — within the city.