Per una storia della Settimana Santa a Malta. I gruppi processionali del Venerdì Santo di Valletta

The article concerns the history of the rites of Holy Week and Good Friday processions in Malta, in relation to the wider Mediterranean context and, therefore, to the tradition of the pasos in Spain and of the "mysteries" of Trapani and Erice. Since the end of the sixteenth century, the Franciscan friars played a key role in the birth and, later, in the wide circulation of such processional representations. Over the centuries the devotion to the Passion of Christ in Malta was fomented also by the presence of two wooden crucifixes made by the Sicilian sculptor frate Innocenzo da Petralia. Finally, the article reconstructs the events relating to the procession and to the sculptural groups of Valletta.