CASAZZE. — Grand, staged processions, living religious representations of sacred drama.
Their origin is Genoese, and the name seems to derive from certain old and large buildings where the flagellant confraternities, established in Genoa around 1260, had their first headquarters. As is well known, sacred representations were among the principal duties of such confraternities. Over time, actual dramatic performances were replaced by processions featuring characters evoking scenes of the Passion and Death of Christ or biblical episodes. In the 16th–18th centuries, these staged processions attained exceptional splendor, particularly on Holy Thursday, giving rise to heated competitions among the different districts of the city. The custom persisted in Genoa until the early decades of the 19th century but survived in some towns of Liguria, especially Savona. It had already spread by the 16th century to Sicily, due to the close commercial ties between Genoa and Palermo, and on the island the *casazze* have survived in scattered locations to this day, retaining their traditional splendor of costumes and adornments. They featured, and in the past featured even more, an extraordinary number of participants. For example, in Nicosia in 1851, 1,200 figures marched in 20 groups representing episodes from the Old and New Testaments. In these lavish and overly ornate displays, Spanish influences have been discerned.