Valme Pilgrimage

According to tradition the Valme Pilgrimage goes back to the conquest of Seville: Ferdinand III is said to have prayed to the Virgin on the hill of Cuarto during the 1248 siege, and the plea 'váleme, Señora' ('help me, Lady') gave rise to the name. Documentary references to the hermitage date from the 14th century, and devotion grew with the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Valme, founded in the 17th century. The image of the Virgin dates from the 13th century.

It is the main festival of Dos Hermanas, but its significance reaches Seville too: the hermitage stands at the Cortijo de Cuarto, next to the Bellavista district, within the municipality of Seville, and the legend links the Virgin to Saint Ferdinand. In 2022 the Andalusian Government listed it as a Site of Cultural Interest (Activity of Ethnological Interest) 'in Dos Hermanas and Seville'.

It is organised by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Valme Coronada and San Fernando, with the support of the Dos Hermanas and Seville city councils and the Provincial Council.

The Virgin leaves the parish church of Santa María Magdalena, on Plaza de la Constitución in Dos Hermanas, and travels some seven kilometres along the old road (A-8032), past the Barranco and the Cuesta del Inglés, to the Seville district of Bellavista, where she stops at the Sagrado Corazón parish church. From there she continues to the hermitage at the Cortijo de Cuarto, within the municipality of Seville. In the afternoon she returns by the same road.

The Virgin travels on a wooden cart decorated with hand-curled tissue-paper flowers, the 'Valme flowers', followed by the Brotherhood's carts, carrying girls and young women in flamenco dress, and private wagons (galeras), all drawn by teams of oxen. Riders lead the way with the Brotherhood's banners and staffs.

At midday the procession stops to pray the Angelus, and a Salve is sung on the Cuesta del Inglés. In Bellavista people sing to the Virgin and throw flowers. Next to the hermitage the pilgrims have lunch and dance sevillanas until mid-afternoon, and at 6 pm the cart sets off back; on arriving at Santa María Magdalena, at around 11 pm, the carts and wagons parade before her and the decoration contest prizes are announced.