The Bélmez Faces

OVERVIEW

The Bélmez Faces — las caras de Bélmez — are an alleged paranormal phenomenon at the Pereira family home at Calle Real 5, Bélmez de la Moraleda, in Jaén, Andalusia. The phenomenon began in 1971 when the residents said images of faces had appeared in the concrete floor of the house.

HISTORY

Faces have appeared and disappeared at irregular intervals since, and have been photographed repeatedly by the local newspapers and by the very large number of curious visitors the case drew. Many people in Bélmez hold that they were not made by human hand. Some investigators have argued for a 'thoughtographic' phenomenon, produced unconsciously by the house's deceased former owner María Gómez Cámara.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

It is one of the best-known paranormal cases in Spain and one of the most thoroughly disputed. Manuel Martín Serrano, a sociologist at the Complutense University of Madrid, wrote Sociología del Milagro — the first book on the case by a sceptic — interviewing dozens of Bélmez residents, though naming none of them, and concluding it was a hoax carried out for financial gain. Later analyses have pointed to painting agents in the floor. The entry records a phenomenon that ran for decades in front of a whole village, and the published work that argues it was made.

VISITING

A private house on an ordinary street in a small town. The faces have at times been displayed locally; do not turn up at the door.