Clergy and parishioners in the Basilica of St Vicente of Avila: liturgical, funereal and secular activities in the 16th & 17th centuries

Abstract

This article studies the basilica of the Saint- Martyrs Vicente, Sabina and Cristeta of Avila. As a huge Romanesque religious building, it was erected in the 12th century following the rediscovery of various late medieval hagiographical traditions. Within a strong funerary and legendary tradition, it became the place where the clergy variously developed their activities, where parishioners would be buried in the hope of entering the next world, and where the local people attended religious and secular festivals, such as processions and dances, bull rituals, as well as a great variety of spectacles designed to highlight a mythicised image of the city and of the church itself.