Kimhe-thank you for the links. I will check those out.

All-I will be in Sevilla for Semana Santa itself. I will be in Madrid for much of the previous week, including Palm Sunday.

Pegontheroad: Is it possible to rent seats along the procession routes in Sevilla?

" Is it possible to rent seats along the procession routes in Sevilla?" At this late a date it would be doubtful.

Note that in Sevilla, as elsewhere, the processions happen at night and go until the early morning hours. And if there is rain, the procession will be cancelled that evening.

www.exploreseville.com/events/semana-santa.htm

MinnBeef: I don't know whether it is possible to rent seats in Sevilla, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't. There were a bizillion seats along the parade route when I was there.

I think you could get them at your hotel, since hotels act as sort of clearing houses for the seat rentals. I didn't rent mine (in Malaga) until Holy Thursday, so I don't think it's too late.

Before I decided to rent, I just sat in empty seats at various times in the afternoon. If the owners came along, I vacated their seats.

P.S. Seat rental for one seat cost me about 100 euros. It was worth it!

Here are the routes of the Madruga processions in Sevilla Thursday night into Friday morning and beyond noon. As you see, there are five processions covering a lot of distance, so there are plenty of possibilities to get a "ring-side" view. http://www.sevillaclick.com/sevilla/...nerarios6b.htm

All of these processions form special and different parts of the major event during the Semana Santa celebrations, but the Ezperanza de Triana and Macarena processions are undoubtfully on top of that exclusive list. More details and several good tips about how to see the madruga in this article from Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...and-guide.html

And of course the less famous processions are quite as powerful. Here Los Gitanos leaving the church for a long Madruga wandering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g77sXmwa9d0
El Silencio in Campana: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bnceSmQ0mw
Gran Poder at the same spot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEIa_d5E0hQ

You must at least experience one seata along the routes, a typical, mournful a capella flamenco style song of probably Jewish origins which is sung all over the south during Semana Santa. Here wonderful Diana Navarro in the main street in the centre of Malaga a couple of years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0OkpfhZntY

Thank you everyone, especially kimhe for all of those links! Kimhe-looks like the routes are for 2014. Would you expect the 2015 routes and times to be about the same?

<Would you expect the 2015 routes and times to be about the same?> Nothing much changes in Spain when it comes to anything ;-), but particularly not when it comes to traditional celebrations.

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...villaHolyWeek#

DSkimo:

These are a few selected scenes giving you the flavor, holiness and excitement of Semana Santa in Sevilla a few years ago. We were fortunate to have the guidance of my oldest friend's niece and her family, residents of Sevilla.

Her husband, a native Sevillano, made sure we were "escorted" to procession routes that were the least crowded either late day or late night. A friend of his was in charge of touching-up the decorations on one of the "Virgin floats" in their church courtyard, so we witnessed it first hand. We were greeted as "honorable Americano guests." Their teen-age children described every movement to us as they so enjoyed showing the Americanos around town.

Thoroughly mesmerizing week. Would highly recommend this to you Dskimo!

We had reserved a beautiful room at the Las Casas de Judios in Barrio Santa Cruz months ahead.

No, you don't have to be Catholic to appreciate the week, its colorful ceremonies and significance.