Throughout the Catholic world, this week is Holy Week (aka Easter Week), and nearly every city and town in Spain marks its Semana Santa with elaborate processions and pageantry dating back centuries. None, however, is older than the celebrations in this ancient city (pop. 66,000) on the Duero River in western Castile-León, not far from the border with northernmost Portugal. Attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors for Semana Santa, Zamora quintuples its population during this week, but at other times of year it’s a refreshingly uncrowded experience that lets you fully appreciate its ancient atmosphere, with much of the architecture of its historic core dating back to the... keep reading