The Tradition of Corpus Christi Floral Tapestries

The Corpus Christi celebration (or Corpus Domini in Latin) is a religious festival dating back to around the year 1246; it was reportedly established by Bishop Robert de Thorete of Liège after the Belgian girl now known as Saint Juliana of Mont Cornillon convinced the local bishop to establish a religious celebration honoring the Eucharist. She had been a fervent devotee of celebrating the Eucharist since childhood, and in this case was reportedly inspired by a mystical vision. After the bishop died, his successor requested that the Pope make this particular feast day an official celebration for the entire Catholic Church, and he complied. 

Since then, Corpus Christi is always celebrated 60 days after Easter Sunday; this year, the holiday falls on June 11th. In Barcelona, the celebrations will last from June 1st through June 11th, 2023. 

While it is a celebration that’s observed in Catholic countries all over the world, most with processions and performances, there is one particularly colorful tradition that stands out in certain communities: the alfombras florales (floral carpets or tapestries—catifes florals in Catalan). These ephemeral works of art range from relatively simple, abstract designs in front of the local church, to dozens of visually stunning, incredibly elaborate tapestries featuring religious motifs created by a small army of collaborators, called alfombristas (“carpet makers”) in Spanish.

How the Tapestries are Made, and Why

Typically, the designs for the floral tapestries are quite large and elaborate; they are first drawn on the pavement with soil, chalk, or on paper that is glued down. Thousands upon thousands of flower petals—having first been meticulously collected from professional growers and/or from the local countryside—are then placed onto the designs, with no glue or other adhesive to hold them down. Materials used include not only flowers, but also leaves, soil and other natural, plant-based materials, such as seeds or grass. Dozens of different kinds of blooms might be employed in the work, from roses and iris to pine and sage.

Plastic tunnels and coverings are sometimes erected to protect the tapestries-in-progress from the weather, and lighting systems are set up to allow the teams to continue their work after the sun goes down. The entire process usually takes two or three days of hard work, and as a final step, water is sprinkled on the finished designs to help keep them in place and to keep the flowers from withering in the daylight.

The teams of alfombristas work through the night to complete their designs, up until around 8:00 or 9:00 on the morning of Corpus Christi. After Mass in the local Catholic church ends, the bishop leads a long procession through the streets, in which he carries and displays the Eucharist in a monstrance. The bishop and his procession of devotees walk directly on top of the tapestries, so anyone wishing to see them should make sure to do so before the Mass ends.

The idea of walking on and ultimately destroying these gorgeous, intricate designs that were created with such care might seem strange, but this tradition of doing so supposedly has its roots in Bible verse John 12:24: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” 

In other words, the lives of the flowers and the work invested were all in service of something greater, and the temporary nature of these pieces of art are a large part of what make them special.

Floral Tapestries in Spain

One of the Spanish towns best known for its Corpus Christi floral tapestry tradition is La Orotava in Tenerife. La Orotava is known not only for the beauty of its “carpets”—there is a route of approximately 30 of these works leading from local landmark Casa Monteverde towards the City Hall, the town’s main church, and the Casa de los Balcones—but also for the gigantic works of sand art that are traditionally incorporated into the center of each design. The sand and soil are taken from the nearby Teide National Park, an important park on the island that is distinguished by the peak of Mount Teide and its volcanic rock formations.

Local legend has it that a woman named Leonor de Castillo y Monteverde started the floral tapestry tradition on the island in 1847 by stewing flower petals on the ground outside her house for the Corpus Christi procession to walk on, and this tradition gradually evolved into that of the floral carpets. Today, millions of blooms are incorporated into these designs, which are particularly intricate even when compared to the other gorgeous tapestries created in other towns and cities around the world. There’s even a museum dedicated to the alfombrista tradition in that town. And as the creation of the tapestries always draws a crowd, vendors set up beer tents and food stalls on street corners and in nearby parks, offering all kinds of drinks and gastronomic delights to both locals and the tourists who flock to witness the annual spectacle. 

Others towns in Spain that are famous for their floral tapestries include San Cristobal de la Laguna (also on the island of Tenerife), which has been observing the tradition of creating floral tapestries since 1907. Ponteareas in Galicia is also known for its floral tapestries, and the tradition also dates back to the beginning of the last century.

Catalunya also has a strong tradition of floral carpets; a Catalan town particularly known for its Corpus carpets is Sitges, the former fishing village-turned-party-town located just 35 kilometers outside of Barcelona. Their tradition dates back to 1814; chrysanthemums are the main flower used in Sitges’ approximately one-dozen flower tapestries created by local artisans each year.

Similar to the Corpus Christi celebrations that take place in Barcelona, in Sitges there are dances, expositions, l’ou com balla (dancing egg), and parades of gegants, nans and capgrossos in the streets during the celebrations. People along the procession route also decorate their balconies and patios with flowers. 

In Barcelona, the importance of creating these floral tapestries is also strong. While the first Corpus Christi procession in the city can be traced back over 700 years, the tradition of the tapestries started a few centuries later. Over a dozen tapestries adorn the city during this time, including the plazas and streets in front of the Cathedral, the City Hall, and in front of various cultural centers and museums. 

Last year, in 2022, the celebration of Corpus Christi in Barcelona was named a Fiesta Patrimonial de Interés Nacional (Heritage Festival of National Interest) by the Generalitat; it’s only the second Barcelona festival to receive such a distinction.

An International Phenomenon

While fiercely proud of this tradition, Spain isn’t the only country in which floral carpets are an important part of the Corpus Christi holiday. 

This evocative art is also held in high esteem in Poland; in that country, the annual act of creating these works of flower art plays an important part of the local sense of community building. Methods of preparing the Corpus Christi tapestries is passed down from generation to generation within families. There are even floral motif design workshops organized in schools, often sponsored by the local church parish and other non-profit organizations. Villages such as Spycimierz, near Łódź—where parishioners create a tapestry that is around two kilometers long—and Klucz, Olszowa, Zalesie Śląskie and Zimna Wódka in the southwest are known for their tapestries. 

In 2021, the Polish tradition of creating floral carpets for Corpus Christi procession was entered into the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Poland’s Cultural Ministry states that the tradition dates back to the medieval tradition of the Polish Royal Gardens donating flowers to help decorate the country’s cathedrals for the Corpus Christi holiday.

In Italy, the alfombristas are known as the infiorate. Many small Italian towns are particularly known for their intricate artwork; one of the most famous flower festivals in the country is in Noto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And in the similarly small town of Spello, where the tradition dates back as far as the 1700s, and when floral carpets adorned the streets in honor of important local events. The more modern tradition in honor of Corpus Christi and in devotion to the Eucharist is more recent, dating back to the early 1900s. By the 1960s, the celebration developed into a competition between local artists and flower growers, with their works adjudicated on technique, creativity and precision.

In Portugal, they also create gorgeous floral tapestries in towns such as Carminha and Ponte de Lima. In Brazil, not only flowers, but also all kinds of other materials are incorporated into the Corpus “tapestries”: cloth, paper, even reclaimed or recycled materials such as bottle caps, coffee bean husks, plastic, stones, sawdust, sand and more. Antigua, Guatemala, is also known for its vivid carpets of flowers, colored sawdust, seeds and leaves. The tradition was brought to Antigua and other parts of Central America and Mexico by Spanish conquistadores in the 1500s. 

If you’ve never seen a floral carpet in person, it’s well worth investigating where you can spot one this June; they’re an impressive sight, and reflect not only the lives of countless blooms and the work of dozens of hands, but the traditions and creativity of of generations of upon generations of local artisans.