Fiestas, grandes eventos religiosos y turismo en España, 1950-1962

Abstract

In a political context in which religion is part of the very heart of Francoism, it is easy to think that the National Catholic regime would use religious tourism as a propaganda tool to glorify patriotism, the moral values of the People and its anti-communism. However, tourism was, even in the 1950s, a nascent sector, very immature, and the economic conditions for its development were not the best. In relation to religion, there was an additional problem that had to do with its consideration as a reason to be valued as a tourist trip, since it was understood that tourism and religion were not, in their essence, compatible. In spite of everything, at this stage we find some interesting actions that, in some cases, take up previous traditions and, in others, signify changes that give us a foretaste of the future. Thus, for example, Holy Week became a typical Spanish event that could be attractive to outsiders. The International Eucharistic Congress in Barcelona in 1952 followed the line of the one held in Madrid in 1911 in terms of its overcrowding and incorporated solutions to the problem of accommodation. Finally, the Compostela Holy Year of 1954 added to its cultural offerings major interventions in the city, among which we highlight the opening of the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos, a luxury public hotel for the reception of illustrious pilgrims who increasingly arrived outside the umbrella of the great pilgrimages organised by the regime.