Barcelona VS Madrid during the Holy Week

Are you looking for an experience/a lot of activity or the city that is quieter with less holy week activity going on? Honestly, if I were in Spain during Holy Week, I'd go to Sevilla. If you watch some of the RS Spain episodes, you'll see what I mean.

Barcelona. You won't have to put up with nutcases wandering around in skirts and masks, banging drums and carrying ridiculous, over-sized tronos and stuff for hours and hours and hours. Catalunya — the least religious region of Iberia.

...it seems previous poster does not have a clear understanding of what Holy Week represents for us, even if we are not religious. I love these parades, with origins back in centuries, and followed by many with devotion or just in awe. Anything but ridiculous.

Hi Jules. Thank you. I was hoping to experience the spirit of Holy Week...I fly in to Barcelona and fly out of Madrid.

Bill's subjective take is... oddly dismissive of the traditions. But he's not wrong that Barcelona's celebrations of Holy Week are really not notable.

I haven't experienced it in Madrid, though, by a coincidence of the calendar, I'll be there this year. I don't know what to expect, but I'm sure it won't compare to what I've seen in Andalucia and Alicante.

My brief bit of research appears to indicate more activities in Madrid than in Barcelona. I've always thought Semana Santa would be better in Sevilla than anywhere else and that spending the whole week there was required. But if you don’t have that much time or plan to go there, it looks like you could certainly get a feel for it in Madrid or Barcelona over the weekend.

This (among many other resources you can find by Googling) might be helpful for Madrid: https://thetourguy.com/travel-blog/guide-to-spending-easter-in-madrid/.

This is one of the many Madrid procession videos from last year: https://youtu.be/Ak3MNvSKXxU?si=aZtp2YVPXyEu-MaV.

This might be helpful for Barcelona: https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/events/easter/easter-weekend-barcelona.html.

This is one of many procession videos in Barcelona from last year: https://youtu.be/XgcWMRrCztU?si=wLJznMcK44HH3xHd.

I recommend Zaragoza, halfway between Madrid and Barcelona on the AVE high speed line. It will give you a taste of the spirit of Semana Santa close to what would be in Andalucia.

https://www.spain.info/en/calendar/easter-week-zaragoza/

Madrid and Barcelona are not cities to enjoy Holy Week in Spain. Apart from the overwhelming naming of Seville, Semana Santa or Holy Week is celebrated in many, many other towns and cities. Zamora, León, Astorga, Valladolid, Bilbao...to name a few in the north, also with many live representations of the last day of Christ on earth, the Via Crucis (google these two words for more info). It´s not only parades, but many other traditions around this particular religious celebrations.

Disclaimer - I'm neither Christian nor very spiritual. I was in Malaga for the first 3 days of of Holy Week and found the processions extremely moving. Then I moved on to Sevilla where the atmosphere was much less serious, in fact festive. On Saturday afternoon I left for Cordoba where Easter Sunday celebration was so low key I missed it.