Fiestas de San Lorenzo in Spain

The Fiestas de San Lorenzo are the most popular and oldest celebration in the neighborhood of Lavapiés (Madrid) and are held every August 10 in honor of San Lorenzo, within a 'trilogy' completed by the Fiestas de la Paloma and the Fiestas de San Cayetano. Since the end of the 20th century a verbena has been held in the Plaza de Lavapiés and neighboring streets with traditional costume contests and dances such as the chotis.

At the end of the 17th century the people of Lavapiés depended on the distant parish of San Sebastián, a situation that induced Baltasar Moscoso y Sandoval, archbishop of Toledo to create the parish of San Lorenzo, designed by Francisco Bautista, on the site of an old synagogue. The church was destroyed in a fire in 1851 that left an abandoned lot until 1950 when the new church was inaugurated with little architectural relation to the original one.

The neighbors of Lavapiés went on August 10th in procession to take the Saint out of the church of San Lorenzo. This procession was extended to the Tirso de Molina square at the end of the 1970s. The procession leaves as a celebration a set of festivals and costume contests castizos: the manolos, the chisperos appear.

It was customary at the end of the century that the festivities lasted three days in Madrid: the day before, the day of the Saint and the day after. On some occasions they even lasted for a week. This situation meant that the feast of San Lorenzo apparently merged with the celebrations of San Cayetano and La Paloma in the neighborhood of La Latina.

In the municipality of Santaella, which is part of the province of Cordoba in Andalusia, the Balloon Festival is celebrated on August 10.