Málaga Holy Week Museum

About Málaga Holy Week Museum

Málaga's Holy Week museum, the Museo de la Semana Santa, occupies the former Hospital de San Julián on Calle Muro de San Julián in the historic centre. It is open all year, so visitors who come outside Easter can still see processional art up close.

The building is part of the visit: rooms open off a courtyard framed by white marble columns, with a fine staircase to the upper floor, and the adjoining church of the hospital adds a sense of a brotherhood's daily life. The displays include processional robes and thrones, sculpture, music and a large collection of official Holy Week posters, plus a room on five centuries of brotherhoods (cofradías) and a closing documentary.

The context makes it worth an hour. Málaga's Holy Week was declared of International Tourist Interest in 1965, the city's federation of brotherhoods dates from 1921, the oldest in Andalucía, and its tronos are famously large: the Esperanza's weighs about five tonnes.

Entry has been free, and the museum has traditionally opened on weekdays only, mornings and late afternoons, so check before going. A weekday morning in the weeks before Easter is ideal, when the brotherhoods are preparing; during Holy Week itself the centre is packed.

Málaga Holy Week Museum in pictures

What you’ll find

• Museum exhibitionExhibition visitTicket
• Museum galleriesMuseum visitTicket

Nearby places to visit

The museum is surrounded by other small collections. The Interactive Music Museum (200 m), opened in 2002, lets you play some of its instruments, and the Flamenco Museum (300 m), run by the Peña Juan Breva, holds more than 5,000 pieces, including over 2,500 records. A little further, the Málaga Museum (600 m) fills the old customs house below the Alcazaba with fine art and archaeology, and the Sea Museum Alborania (800 m) is closed while it is rebuilt as the Museo Alborán. For the sea itself, Playa La Malagueta (1 km) is a pleasant walk away through the port.