The Department of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism has informed the Calp City Council that it grants the declaration of Festival of Autonomous Tourist Interest of the Valencian Community to Holy Week in Calp. This is a distinction that recognizes the originality and popular tradition of these celebrations, as well as their capacity to attract visitors.
Specifically, the participation of people of various nationalities in them stands out as distinctive and original elements of the festival, as well as the mix of customs between the Mediterranean Holy Week and the more sober Castilian one, which gives it a unique and eclectic character that distinguishes it from other celebrations in Spain.
The tourist interest of Calpine Holy Week has also been taken into account, a festival that in 2024 attracted a daily average of 31.100 visitors to the municipality. Of them, approximately half were tourists, that is, they spent the night in Calp and the other half were visitors. It must also be taken into account that of all of them, 79,5% came from Spain, the rest being foreigners. Among the Spaniards, 40% came from the province of Alicante itself, 27,9% from Madrid and 11,5% from Valencia.
Likewise, the antiquity and tradition of the celebrations has been valued. In the report presented by the City Council to request the Declaration of a Festival of Autonomous Interest, it is noted that in Calp a procession dedicated to the Virgin of Sorrows has been celebrated since time immemorial, although it is proven that in 1954 a group of neighbors created the Brotherhood of Jesús Nazareno who came to process through the streets of Calp and who commissioned an image from the Javanese sculptor Juan Bautista Devesa, although for economic reasons the image had to be returned in 1958.
In 2008 the festival commission decided to buy the image of the Nazarene from the sculptor's daughter. After being restored, it once again parades through the streets of Calp on Holy Thursday 2010. Since then, Calpine Holy Week has regained an extraordinary dynamism that has led to the celebrations currently involving five brotherhoods and brotherhoods. In addition to the Brotherhood of Jesús Nazareno, the Brotherhood of Silence, the Brotherhood of Santísimo Cristo de las Tres Caídas, the Brotherhood of Christ of the Gypsies ”El Poderoso and the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Health. Along with them, the Festeros, responsible for the Palm Sunday procession and the Encuentro, and whose celebrants become the “sorrowful” of the Virgin of Sorrows.
During Calpine Holy Week, the different brotherhoods walk through the streets of the old town, one each day starting on Palm Sunday. Devotion and aestheticism reach their peak on Good Friday, with the procession of the Holy Burial that ends in the Plaza de la Villa with the meeting of all the images and brotherhoods. The celebrations conclude on Easter Sunday, when the Meeting between the Risen Christ and the Virgin takes place in the Plaza San Salvador, one of the most heartfelt events in which the members of the Festival Commission acquire special relevance by accompanying the images. wearing the traditional Calpine costume.
“The declaration of a Festival of Autonomous Tourist Interest is a recognition of the uniqueness of our Calpine Holy Week, a distinction that highlights the great richness of our cultural heritage and that, without a doubt, motivates us to continue working to make these events greater. parties,” said the mayor of Calp, Ana Sala.
