Official Portal of Tourism. Junta de Castilla y Leon

This festival is one of the most important manifestations of Spanish tradition, due to its artistic beauty. The images in the processions were made by the most relevant image-crafters of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The first penitential fraternities of Rioseco were born under the Franciscans in the local convent in the 15th century. The historic fraternities of la Vera Cruz, la Quinta Angustia and Soledad y la Pasión, were reformed into the 16 that exist today, with a total of twenty floats. The most important processions are the Del Mandato on Maundy Thursday, and Del Dolor on Good Friday.

All the floats are carried on the brothers' shoulders through the old narrow village streets. Particularly impressive is the procession called Pasos Grandes (big floats), known locally as El Longinos and La Escalera, which corresponds with the floats of La Crucifixión (the crucifixion) and El Descendimiento (the descent from the cross).