Holy Week Rites of Taranto

One of Italy's most celebrated Easter traditions

The Holy Week Rites of Taranto represent the heart of the Ionian capital's identity and one of the most intense and well-known manifestations of popular religiosity in all of Puglia. For an entire week, the Municipality of Taranto, from the Old Town on the island to the Umbertine Borgo, transforms into a grand sacred theatre of silence, funeral marches, and the slow, swaying gait that marks the rhythm of the rites.

The origins date back to 1703, when the nobleman Don Diego Calò commissioned the first statues of the Dead Christ and the Addolorata from Naples. Since then, the tradition has been guarded and passed down by the confraternities, becoming an inseparable part of the Taranto soul.

The two confraternities and the two processions

The rites revolve around two ancient confraternities and their respective processions:

• The Confraternity of the Addolorata and San Domenico, based in the church of San Domenico Maggiore in the Old Town, organizes the Addolorata Procession, which begins on the night between Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
• The Confraternity of the Carmine, based in the Carmine church in the Borgo, oversees the solemn Misteri Procession on Good Friday afternoon, which only concludes at dawn on Holy Saturday after more than twelve hours of walking.

The 'perdoni' and the 'nazzicata'

The absolute protagonists are the perdoni (penitents), the confreres who march barefoot, hooded, with their faces covered and hats pulled low, proceeding in pairs called poste. Their extremely slow, rhythmic gait, which makes them sway from side to side, is the famous nazzicata: a few meters covered in many minutes, in an atmosphere of contemplation and penance that makes the Taranto Holy Week unique.

The auctions for symbols and statues

A peculiar feature of the rites is the gara (or auction) held on Palm Sunday: confreres compete with bids to earn the privilege of carrying the statues, the 'sdanghe' (poles), and the sacred symbols of the two processions. These are emotional auctions where bids can exceed one hundred thousand euros, with proceeds supporting charitable works and the preservation of the confraternal heritage.

Music, the 'troccola', and atmosphere

The processions are accompanied by marching bands, which perform famous funeral marches of the Southern tradition. Opening the Misteri Procession is the troccolante, who uses the troccola — a wooden percussion instrument — to mark the rhythm of the walk and signal the stops.

Experiencing the Holy Week Rites in Taranto means immersing yourself in a centuries-old collective liturgy, among the alleys of the Old Town and the streets of the Borgo overlooking the Mar Grande and Mar Piccolo: a cultural and spiritual experience that defines the Ionian Puglia.