BASILICA OF LA MACARENA IN SEVILLE

BASILICA OF LA MACARENA IN SEVILLE

The Basilica of the Macarena is also one of the most important and beautiful places to go in Seville, especially if we use to like the environment of worship and religious tourism. It is called like that because of its location in the Macarena neighborhood. Actually, it is the Virgin of Macarena who has given name to the quarter and to the basilica.

This neighborhood is one of the best known in the city for several reasons. The Macarena neighborhood has a marked cultural environment and not only because of its impressive main basilica. It is an area with many bookstores and entertainment shops, vintage clothing stores, the fair market… Later we will talk about how good this area is to enjoy a good time of tourism, but first we are going to focus on the Basilica de la Macarena.

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

Although we use to think these types of temples are very ancient, the fact is that in many cases they are not. In this case, the Basilica of The Macarena started its construction about 80 years ago, in 1941. There are people who are still alive and who have passed through that street when the basilica was not yet there.

This basilica is the place where the virgin of the brotherhood of Esperanza Macarena can be found. It is also custody of the images of the brotherhood, which is not the function for which it was initially intended, but after the fire in the chapel of San Gil in 1936, the basilica acquired this function.

Both the land and the building are blessed by the archbishop of Seville at that time, Pedro Segura y Sáenz, and the well-known historical figures of Queipo de Llanos and Serafina Salcedo appear inside the basilica. The greatest achievement of this basilica is obtaining the “category” of minor basilica, that was obtained through Pope Paul VI, who made this construction the first in Seville to obtain it.

PARTS OF THE BASILICA

We could mainly distinguish four parts in the building with neo-baroque decoration: three chapels and the altar of Spanishness. The chapels are named: Camarín de la Macarena, Camarín de la Sentencia and Capilla del Rosario. These chapels are really beautiful spaces decorated with paintings, frescoes, figures and high-quality materials such as marble of different colors. This made the basilica really attractive for tourists and for passionate people of the brotherhood. It is a really beautiful basilica.

MUSEUM

The museum that the basilica has inside it is another of its tourist attractions. It is a fairly large museum of almost 800 square meters distributed on different floors. Throughout the tour of this museum, we can experience a true approach to the Holy Week of Seville and all that it means, in addition to a large number of specific symbols and elements of the brotherhood of Esperanza Macarena, which have been preserved after its 400 years of history.

Without a doubt, it is one of the places in Seville most attracted by visitors, and it is due to its history and good location. In this neighborhood, we have the possibility of visiting other nearby places such as the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas, the churches of Santa Marina or San Marcos, or la puerta de Córdoba, among others.