Andalucia is famous for its pilgrimages or romerías - so called because pilgrims traditionally walked to Rome, and therefore became known as "romeros" - to popular shrines, around which fiestas are held.
Perhaps the most spectacular is the one devoted to the Virgen del Rocío, popularly called El Rocio for short. Nearly a million people from all over Spain and Andalucia make the long journey to gather in a small hamlet of El Rocio in the marshlands of the Guadalquivir River delta (south of Almonte), where the statue of the "Madonna of the Dew" has been worshipped since 1280.
The pilgrims come on horseback and in gaily decorated covered wagons from all over the region, transforming the area into a colourful and lively party.
| 
TRAVEL CALENDAR
