Holy Week in Jaén

Jaén's brotherhoods go back a long way: Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno was founded between 1588 and 1594 at the Discalced Carmelite convent of San José, and its members did penance barefoot in the early-morning Good Friday procession, carrying a cross on their shoulders. In the 19th century it became the most significant brotherhood in the city.

The first attempts to bring the brotherhoods together date from 1926 and 1931, when a 'Junta de Cofradías' was created. On 9 June 1946 the seven existing brotherhoods officially set up the Association of Holy Week Brotherhoods, which took on fundraising, promotion, the official route and the coordination of timetables and routes. In 1992 it was re-founded as the Association of Brotherhoods and Confraternities, also bringing in the 'gloria' brotherhoods.

In 2026 there were 22 processions, with a new brotherhood on Holy Monday.

The processions mainly go through the historic centre. In the early hours of Good Friday, Nuestro Padre Jesús passes through the Cantones, calle Maestra, calle Almenas, the squares of Santa María and San Ildefonso and the Reja de la Capilla, and meets the Virgen de los Dolores in plaza de Santa María, beside the Cathedral. The Association of Brotherhoods sets up chairs, stands and boxes along the official route.

The busiest moment is the early hours of Good Friday, with Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno and María Santísima de los Dolores: many saetas are sung along the route, especially in the Cantones, calle Almenas and calle Maestra, and at around five in the morning the two images meet in plaza de Santa María.

The City Council steps up street cleaning along the routes, applies an anti-wax treatment to the paving before each procession and hands out paper cones so that spectators do not drop sunflower-seed shells on the ground.