Historical Good Friday Procession

In a program of intense Easter liturgy, in Gualdo Tadino the rites of the holy week are characterized in manifestations of high religious content, among which the Historical Procession of Good Friday is distinguished. An imposing procession that recalls the Passion of Jesus according to the medieval tradition handed down by the Company of Santa Maria dei Raccomandati, whose members, with the various city confraternities, proceeded two by two singing poetic compositions of religious theme and popular character which the city kept a precious collection.
On this dramatic base this grandiose and spectacular representation took shape, from the church of San Francesco, where the simulacrum of the Dead Christ is kept, they proceed through the city streets to the sound of the "battistrangola" (ancient musical instrument that has almost completely disappeared) representing, with two hundred and fifty characters divided into fourteen paintings, the significant episodes of the Via Crucis, or the traditional sequence of the historical drama of the Passion, from capture to the trial, from the ascent to the ordeal to the crucifixion of Jesus.
Significantly, the procession closes with the simulacrum of the dead Christ carried by the Confraternity of the Holy Trinity, the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows and the faithful.
The dramaticness of this re-enactment, even in its simplicity, reaches very high tones with the scene of the crucifixion in the great square, for the intense collective participation and for the suggestive context offered by the historical center.

It takes place on Good Friday.