In 2007 we walked the Via de la Plata from Sevilla as far as Zamora (click here for the photos).

Zamora

It was Semana Santa (Holy Week). Our nephew James and girlfriend Clara joined us from Sweden for the 3 days we spent in Zamora before walking on.

Jose, our Airbnb host, makes his own very nice wine

Hanging up the washing outside the apartment – that’s the old city walls behind

Sunday is chocolate and churros for breakfast day

Zamoran rice dish in a clay pot and cooked in a wood fired oven and the local red wine

On Palm Sunday people bring branches of trees to Church

Palm Sunday procession …

… with the float of Jesus entering Jerusalem …

… is joined by thousands as it is carried through the main square of Zamora

Some more of the Pasos (floats) carried on shoulders in processions through the streets in Semana Santa. These floats are huge, and heavy, requiring 30 or more carriers.

The Hermandad de Jesús en su Tercera Caída (Brotherhood of the Third Fall of Jesus) was formed in 1942 to pray for the souls of those fallen in the Civil War. Today, on its 75th anniversary there are 1800 members.

The Hermandad Penitencial del Santísimo Cristo de la Buena Muerte (Brotherhood of the Good Death of Christ) has about 400 members. They walk barefoot and in silence carrying Christ on the Cross. People line the streets 6 deep to view the procession which pased by our apartment. We were woken at midnight, not be the noise, but by the silence.