Holy Week in Trapani

Every year, on Holy Friday in Trapani, there is a great emotion, namely the repetition of a centuries-old tradition representing the passion and death of Christ: the Procession of the Mysteries. It consists of 18 sculptural groups plus two simulacra, made of wood, cloth and glue between the 17th and 18th centuries by Trapani workshops. The procession has Spanish origins and, today, the Unione Maestranze is the real organising machine of this splendid secular rite that has never lost its charm despite the pathological changes dictated by the passage of time.

At 2 p.m. on Holy Friday, the Sacred Groups leave the baroque church of Purgatory, carried on the shoulders of the characteristic “Massari” or young volunteers, accompanied by the classic sound of funeral marches sung by marching bands, and then wind their way through the main streets of the city, for almost 24 hours without interruption. During the night, the Mysteries pass through the most characteristic and beautiful streets of the old town. On Saturday morning Piazza Purgatorio fills up, here one of the most exciting moments of the procession: the entrance of the Sacred Groups into the Church of Purgatory.

Trapani’s Holy Week is represented by two other historical processions of the Pietà on Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday, i.e., two ancient paintings set inside vare (glass vessels), which run through the streets of the city centre.

13 – 20 April 2025