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Andalusia ANDALUCIA 2007 Sevilla: Religious and Secular Arts and Crafts The title of this itinerary may give you a hint on what to expect of this unique tour. Andalusia is a land of popular festivities, traditional fairs and religious celebrations. Seville in particular, is famous, among other things, for its Holy Week and April Fair. These two events require the constant and dedicated work of a wide range of artisans whose creativity and technical expertise are fundamental for the success of such exuberant activities. Our company believes in studying and understanding the processes that contribute to the development of cultural expressions. The tour we have planned will give you a different perspective of Seville’s most traditional events. We will go behind the scenes to look at the process of creation and to study the historic origin of the many arts and crafts involved in these fantastic celebrations. Enjoy reading about this trip and we hope you can join us. Together we will explore and discover another piece of Andalusia’s magnificent culture. Religious
Arts and Crafts The practice of carrying out religious statues is practiced to a great extent in Spain and other places of Europe. These elaborated religious processions are set within the liturgical calendar, being extremely popular the one commemorating Christ’s passion and resurrection. Confraternities and brotherhoods begin planning this event long in advance. They prepare the procession by ordering religious richly embroidered clothing and gold or silver decorations for processional images, and the floats that carry the “pasos”, multifigural floats of religious statues designed specially for this occasion). These single statues or multifigural scenes developed in the context of Spanish sculpture between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century. They have special features because they combine naturalism with emotionalism conveying the viewer a sense of realism, making the figure depicted almost physically present. These images were designed so they could be clothed, and wear accessories such as jewelry and crowns. In Seville the peak of the production was during the 17th century with its intensely expressive Baroque style. Some of these images are preserved in the Holy Week Museum and local churches.The purpose of the first four days is to study and understand the process or arts and crafts making behind these exuberant and moving celebrations. We will begin our tour with visits to confraternities, churches and the Holy Week Museum in order to see the images that parade during this religious celebration. We will continue our tour visiting imagery, silversmith, and embroidery workshops to see how these figures are created, decorated and dressed following old traditional techniques. Once we have learned how these images are produced, we will continue exploring the manufacturing process of decorations such as candles, which are key elements in the celebration of the Holy Week. Secular Arts and Crafts Flamenco music, guitars, “castañuelas,” embroidered shawls and colorful ruffled dresses. Could it be other than the famous April Fair of Seville? Millions of visitors attend this ten day long event every year. The city is lightened by more than 300.000 light bulbs and streets are embellished with specially designed paper decorations. Adorned horses parade the streets carrying elegant ladies wearing typical dresses and beautiful flower decorations on their hair. Singing, dancing, eating and drinking, Seville is a big party. Behind the scenes of this enormous celebration are factories and workshops that work all year round to make a success of this fair. Seville
is also famous for producing colorful ceramic and tiles with decorations
that follow traditional designs and glass blown high quality pieces.
The tile and glass manufacturing process has been preserved through
the years by artisans following the old techniques. In this way,
the traditional mingles with the modern in beautiful contemporary
pieces designed for decoration or daily life.This part of the tour
is dedicated to Seville’s secular arts and crafts which are among
the most refined and popular in Spain. We will visit the main workshops
producing musical instruments, dresses, embroidered shawls, silver
and leather horse dressing accessories, glass, ceramics, tiles and
other unique traditional arts and crafts. Day
1: Seville Day
2: Seville Day 3: Seville Morning:
Religious embroidery workshop Day 4: Seville Morning:
Candle and wax ornament factory (Old Cerería El Salvador) Day 5: End of Tour. Hotel check out Day 1: Seville Morning:
Flamenco dress factory, and Manila shawls
workshop Day 2: Seville Morning:
Traditional glass factory of La Trinidad. Day 3: Ecija Morning:
Visit horse dressing ornaments factory Day 4: End of Tour. Hotel Check out. Options for those taking an evening flight: Alcazar, Maria Luisa Park, Cemetery of San Fernando, San Luis, Macarena and Calle de la Feria, Arenal, San Vicente, San Lorenzo ANDALUCIA 2007SEVILLE: RELIGIOUS ARTS AND CRAFTS Price: U$S 770* Hotels Items
Included Items Not Included Round
trip airplane tickets to Seville SEVILLE: SECULAR ARTS AND CRAFTS Price: U$S 560* Hotels The tour includes accommodations in a three-star hotel for 3 nights in Seville. Soldevila Cultural Tours can make arrangements for you to stay in a four-star hotel, in which case the price difference will be charged to you. Items Included Breakfast
at the hotel Items Not Included Round
trip airplane tickets to Seville *Prices may vary according to season and hotel preferences. Tours can be combined in which case the cost for the 8 days tour will be U$S 1,330. All tours Soldevila Cultural Tours can be taken individually or combined with other tours within Spain. Check our website at www.soldevilacultural.com for our wonderful tours in Madrid and Barcelona or contact us for a customized tour in Spain.
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