The congress came to Ibiza for the first time and took place at the University of the Balearic Islands’ Ibiza and Formentera campus, with activities at various points of Dalt Vila. It was driven by the Coordinating Board of Holy Week Brotherhoods of Ibiza and the Diocese of Ibiza. It was supported by the Consell d’Eivissa and Ibiza Travel. It also brought together the collaboration of the Group of World Heritage Cities, the Ibiza City Council, the Image and Sound Archive, the Ethnographic Museum of Ibiza, and several local companies. The network of supporters showed the will to make an impact on the territory and to open a permanent dialogue between tradition, culture, and tourism.
The program combined academic reflection, liturgy, and access to heritage. It included sessions on the iconography of the Passion and the management of religious heritage in UNESCO urban contexts. It incorporated a Way of the Cross with the image of the Holy Christ of the Cemetery. It added the exhibition “Moments of Faith: Ibiza’s Holy Week.” It offered a guided route through Dalt Vila focused on reading the cultural landscape. It included the annual meeting of presidents of the Spanish Association of Holy Week in World Heritage Cities. The activities helped showcase Ibiza’s uniqueness as a monumental and spiritual setting.
In her closing remarks, Valdés Arroyo set out a practical roadmap. She invited brotherhoods to consolidate their role as laboratories of social and tourism innovation. She proposed professionalizing the storytelling of processions and brotherhood houses. She suggested creating extended calendars to counter seasonality and activate the cultural fabric beyond Holy Week. She called for training specialized guides and digitizing archives, floats, and coffered ceilings. She insisted on linking every experience to an identity-based narrative that respected liturgical rhythms and neighborhood sensitivities.
The speaker argued that World Heritage Cities needed to turn the conservation of religious heritage into a lever for sustainable development. She noted that coexistence between residents and visitors required clear capacity limits and ongoing mediation. She recommended benefit-sharing schemes that reinvested in restoration, accessibility, and heritage education. She highlighted the usefulness of tourism observatories to measure flows, spending, and satisfaction. She stressed that success did not lie in massification but in the quality of the experience and in a sense of pride and belonging.
Ibiza provided an ideal setting for this conversation. Its walls, temples, and streets in Dalt Vila resonated with a creative and welcoming ecosystem. Public-private coordination enabled careful logistics and effective communication. Audience response reinforced the idea that, when properly interpreted, Holy Week generated cultural, spiritual, and economic value. The congress served to share best practices, set quality standards, and project Ibiza’s Holy Week internationally.
The closing included a dramatized visit through Dalt Vila, the Jubilee Mass of the Brotherhoods, and a demonstration of ball pagès with tastings of local products in the Cathedral square. The sequence celebrated the blend of living tradition, hospitality, and cultural landscape. Attendees highlighted the warmth of the welcome and the clarity of the proposals.
With her final intervention, Pilar Valdés Arroyo strengthened the idea that brotherhoods and fraternities were not only keepers of memory but true engines of innovation and community cohesion. The congress ended with concrete commitments and a work agenda linking conservation, participation, and sustainability. Ibiza reaffirmed its status as a heritage city capable of inspiring collaborations and leading a religious tourism model that is inclusive and respectful of its people and its history.
