Religious Travel

Catholic Travel in Spain & Portugal

Under our brand Holy Places in Spain, we were focused on Catholic pilgrimage tours inside the Iberian Peninsula, where we included Spain, Portugal and Lourdes in southern France.

We are over twenty-five years of experience in pilgrimage tours that combine visits to Santiago de Compostela with the main Marian Shreds having the opportunity to listen to Gregorian chants, visit the best collections of religious relics in the world, follow in the steps of the mystics Santa Teresa and San Juan de la Cruz, celebrate Mass in a number of Romanesque churches and cathedrals, and enjoy the great wealth of artistic and religious richness that Spain has to offer.

We can together custom the pilgrimage program that you are looking for in the Iberian Peninsula.

If you are interested in any of our Catholic itineraries or interested in any custom pilgrimage for your community or parish, visit 

holyplacesinspain.com

Come To The Easter Processions

The Moorish Legacy

With their invasion in 711 A.D., almost the entire Iberian Peninsula fell under Moorish control. During the subsequent centuries, the Christians from their stronghold in the northernmost province of Asturias, slowly began to win back the lost territory, until in the mid-13^th century only the area that today coincides with Andalusia remained in the hands of the Moors.

Cordoba, famous for its Mezquita or mosque, was in the 10^th century a city of almost a million people, many of whom came from Damascus. The splendid heritage they left behind in Cordoba is to be found at each and every corner.

Seville, with its Giralda or golden tower, was an important city to the Almohades, an ancient Berber tribe of northern Africa, whose empire stretched into Spain to the northern limits of Andalusia.

Granada, the ultimate stronghold of the Moors on the peninsula, fell to the Catholic Kings in 1492. It has superbly conserved Arabic buildings such as the famous palace of  Alhambra, where, tradition has it, Boabdil (the last king of the  Nasrid tribe in Spain) shed tears at the loss of his empire.

Sepharad: the Jewish Experience in Spain

Since the beginning of its history, the Iberian Peninsula has been invaded by a succession of peoples such as the Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, etc.

The first Jews are believed to have arrived at the same time as the Romans between the 2^nd century B.C and the 2^nd century A.C and gradually began to be assimilated into the society of the time.

With the Moorish invasion, the Jewish culture in Spain reached its height of splendour. During this period, Jews, Arabs and Christians alike lived peacefully in principal cities such as Toledo, Segovia, Caceres, Tudela, Cordoba and Gerona; many of these cities still preserve their Jewish District, Synagogues, etc.

The Sephardic Museum of Toledo is located in a 12^th century building and has one of the most important collections of the Jewish culture of Spain.