Earlier this week, Tim and I ventured off on a day trip to a truly unique and quirky mountain village nestled in the Alpujarras area of southern Spain, an area we love.
Why did we choose this tiny, off-the-beaten-path village? Well, I’ve been busy researching for my forthcoming online event, “Witchcraft: The Real History,” and a friend mentioned a place that had fully embraced its historical links to sorcery, turning it into a fascinating tourist attraction. Naturally, I couldn’t resist exploring it for myself!
In the video below, I take you on a journey through Soportújar, a village where witchcraft meets history, with its Baba Yaga statues, mysterious caves, and even a Hansel and Gretel house! It’s a place steeped in folklore and magic, with a history tied to settlers who were once branded as sorcerers.
This trip was such an inspiring part of my research for the event, and I captured plenty of footage along the way. I hope you enjoy joining me for this video tour of Soportújar, a place that truly celebrates its enchanting past. We loved our day there!
Learn more about my online event: https://claireridgway.com/events/witchcraft/
Salem, Massachusetts, has done something similar, I understand.
Love the statue of the witch, seriously though it’s nice to explore the beaten track, on tv once I saw a documentary about the wild scenery in Spain, cannot recall the area but it did look stunning with mountains and forests and it was also home to beautiful eagles, however not meaning to digress so I will comment on my own experience of witchcraft, whilst delving into my family history I came across a document of a witch trial that had taken place in the 1600’s, my ancestor had lost her daughter it was believed by having a spell placed on her by a local witch, my ancestor gave evidence at this woman’s trial and the unfortunate victim was later hung! Such ignorance was appalling but that was the age they lived in, but man did progress and these ideas and beliefs borne of centuries of superstition are thankfully in the past.
Hi Christine,
We live in a very rural area in the mountains and see ibex regularly, birds of prey, and sometimes wild boar. It is stunning here.
Oh wow! That’s very interesting to have that in your family history. Unfortunately, there are still countries today where people are prosecuted for witchcraft and even die as a result. It’s awful.
You are very fortunate living in such a region Claire, it must be lovely seeing ibex and boar and beautiful birds of prey, are there any old ruins of castles where you live? much better than the awful tourist areas, I am on ancestry which I think is the best genealogy website and saw the info about my ancestor from some one else’s tree, it was interesting but how dreadful when so many innocent people died through sheer ignorance, however it is true there are still some areas in the world where witchcraft is taken seriously, and in fact I read once in the paper of how one poor girl was accused of being a witch in a very remote area in Italy, it was possibly quite a poor backward region and the villagers were obviously superstitious and this poor girl was hounded by them, shocking in this age! She was actually imprisoned but later released, I don’t think she was Italian possibly British and was working over there, poor girl must have been terrified,!