Holy Week in Gallipoli

Gallipoli is home to many baroque churches, locations of many brotherhoods, which contribute in a certain manner to the unfolding of the rites and processions of the Easter period that here, like almost everywhere in Puglia, starts with Good Friday and ends on Holy Saturday.

The dell`Addolorata procession and blessing of the sea

The first act of the tragedy of Christ brought to the stage through the streets of the City Beautiful is the procession which takes place a week before Good Friday. The procession starts from the Church of the Carmine at noon, announced by the wail of the trumpet and roll drummer. The procession is organized by the association of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Mercy Prayer and Death, whose associates wear traditional clothes, sacco, mozetta and blacks cap. The statue of Our, work of 1748, dressed in black with gold embroidery and silver crown, It is brought into the wonderful cathedral-art gallery for the traditional "Stabat mater", and then in procession from the old town to the new town. After the seventeenth-century bridge, stopping statue on the bastion for the blessing of the sea, exciting time hailed by the sirens of vessels.

I “sabburchi” Holy Thursday

It returns to the streets on Holy Thursday, when the doors of the churches are open for visits to the altar of repose, the better known”sabburchi”. In addition to the faithful and a good number of tourists and curious, Also fraternities in traditional dress performing and exchange visits at different times, announced by the dull sound of the trumpet. From dusk to night, from dawn to noon, alternate in the line for two May hooded, Members of the ancient guilds of masons, sarti, fishermen, longshoremen or bastaggi, blacksmiths, bottai, carpenters, repair and noble

L`Urnia and the Procession of the Mysteries

Again the silence surrounds the maze of alleys in the old Gallipoli, No bell rings on Good Friday. By mid-afternoon hundreds of worshipers gather outside the Holy Cross Church of the brotherhood of the coopers, which always organizes the Good Friday procession. Great expectations, every year, for the preparation of 'Urnia, the tomb of Jesus' death. The output of the procession is announced by a penitent mozetta turquoise and crown of thorns with troccola and discipline to hand, followed by four sentinels with lampposts. One behind the other, parade procession of mysteries, while the band plays marches by ancient authors Gallipoli. The last part of the procession is composed of the guild of fishermen in white shirts and blue mozetta, devoted to Our Lady of the Angels, accompanying the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows. Penitents identity protected, with eyes on the ground, incedono barefoot dragging heavy crosses, for eight long hours until they return, midnight.

The procession of the Desolate and Caremma

After three hours from the return of the Mysteries procession, all 3 the night of Holy Saturday, Purity of the Church of the Madonna comes out the silent procession of Bleak that for nine hours through the streets of the city, returning at noon. All doors are closed until the night, when the bells announce the Resurrection. On Easter Sunday, finally, last joyful act that ends in joy the period is the burning of Caremma, puppets of old ladies representing the Carnival mom.