During the summer months of July and August, Gallipoli is transformed into a tourist Mecca for Italian and international tourists alike. Its stunning beaches, the crystal clear Ionian Sea and raging nightlife render it a sun and fun lover’s paradise. At all other times of the year, Gallipoli rests a sleepy, fishing hamlet where the locals busy themselves with the activities they have been carrying on for centuries. Local pride and tradition are so heartfelt in few other places .
Easter rites actually begin on Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of the period of Lent, but the build up of festivities during the Holy Week is intensified on Maundy Thursday, with the ceremonial commemorations of the washing of Christ's feet. The church bells ring for the last time before Easter Saturday and the congregations begin their pilgrimage from church to church to pay their respects at the "altar of repose" elaborately decorated in each instance with flowers and candles.
The most intensely moving and evocative of the Holy Week ceremonies is the Procession of the Mysteries and Mary’s Desolation. Actually a series of processions, organized by different catholic confraternities, the focal point of the week’s preparations are the processions of the brotherhood of the Holy Crucifix (the traditional congregation of Gallipoli’s barrel makers located on the waterfront of the old city) and that of Saint Mary of the Angels (the traditional congregation of the town’s fishermen, located in the church immediately adjacent to the Holy Crucifix) which leave from the respective churches at sundown on Good Friday. In the hours before dawn on Easter Saturday, just before the processions of the night of Good Friday retire, the solemn procession of Mary’s Desolation departs from the Church of Saint Mary’s Purity, one of Gallipoli’s most characteristic churches along the waterfront of the old city.
As the tolling of the church bells is prohibited until midnight on Easter Saturday, the harsh, grating sound of the traditional iron trottola announces the processions as they weave through first the old city, then the newer parts, before returning again to the old town in the final hours. The only other sounds to be heard are the accompaniment of marching bands beating out funerary marches and the notes of hymns and prayers customary during these solemn rites.
The brotherhoods participating in the procession are recognizable by their coloured robes: red and turquoise for the Confraternity of the Holy Crucifix, white and blue for that of Saint Mary of the Angels. The brothers of Saint Mary’s Purity are clothed in white with a short yellow cloak over their shoulders. Some are barefoot, others lumbar under the weight of a heavy cross or one of the statues representing the Passion of Christ, brothers of the Holy Crucifix wear a crown of thorns, all are hooded and dressed in penitentiary robes, representative of sinners appealing for God’s forgiveness.
Popular legend has it that Gallipoli’s Holy Week traditions date back to medieval times, but it is more likely to have been initiated during the period of Spanish rule. The processions are reminiscent of similar rites celebrated in Andalucia, Valencia and Malta.