Tobias SCHULT c/o EMEIS DEUBEL traveled to El Rocío in Analusia, Spain, to document the annual pilgrimage. Over a million pilgrims - Romeros - come to the small town at Pentecost for the pilgrimage - Romería - which otherwise has a manageable population of only 2,000.
Over 100 brotherhoods travel from all over Spain and some from abroad. On their traditionally set route, the Camino to El Rocío, they visit other brotherhoods. A well-known place that many brotherhoods pass through is Villamanrique de la Condesa in the province of Seville.
On the Saturday before Pentecost, the brotherhoods ride, drive and march into El Rocío and pass the pilgrimage church, the Ermita, where they are welcomed. They then continue to their houses, which are otherwise empty all year round.
In 2023, the pilgrimage was declared a national cultural asset. In the same year, the Vox parliamentary group in the Andalusian Parliament proposed its candidacy for inclusion in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. There are tens of thousands of Christian pilgrimage sites. The world's largest annual pilgrimages are to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe (around 20 million pilgrims) and to the pilgrimage sites of Rome (around 18 million pilgrims).
