Zugarramurdi — the witch caves

OVERVIEW

Zugarramurdi is a village in Navarre, near the French border. A stream runs through a great open cave beneath it, and it is in the field beside one of the smaller caves that the meetings were said to be held. The Basque word akelarre — a witches' sabbath — is taken from that field: aker beltz, the black he-goat that grazed there, which was said to turn into a man when the witches gathered. The village has a witch museum, and fires are lit in the caves each summer solstice for the day of the witch.

HISTORY

The Basque witch trials were the last attempt by the Spanish Inquisition to root out witchcraft in the Basque Country. The trial began in January 1609 at Logroño, seat of the Inquisition tribunal responsible for Navarre, Álava, Gipuzkoa, Biscay, La Rioja and the north of Burgos and Soria. It was influenced by the parallel persecution conducted by Pierre de Lancre across the border in Labourd. Although the number executed was small compared with other European persecutions, it is the largest single event of its kind by the number of people investigated: some seven thousand cases were examined. Those accused were mostly women, but the tribunal also went after children and men, including priests accused of healing with nóminas — amulets bearing the names of saints.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The aftermath matters as much as the trial. The inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías re-examined the evidence and reported that he had found no proof of witchcraft at all — 'there were neither witches nor bewitched until they were talked and written about' — and the Inquisition's own instructions of 1614 followed his findings and effectively ended witch-burning in Spain. The entry records both halves: the machinery, and the man inside it who stopped it.

VISITING

The caves are open for a small charge and the Museo de las Brujas is in the village. Route NA-4401 in northern Navarre, close to the French border.