Las Alpujarras, that vast land that goes from the province of Granada to Almería, with an imposing geography. That, has so defined the future of its history, the same place where Boabdil took refuge after selling the Nasrid jewel, or in whose highest peak where the great Mulay Hacén was buried. In these lands with thousands of secrets we can find Soportújar, also known as the "Town of the Witches".
A bit of history
We are talking about lands through which, since ancient times, countless peoples have inhabitated. Here they have stepped from Celts and Iberians, to great empires such as ancient Rome, which in turn would give way to the different Visigoth peoples. Everything until the arrival of the Muslim culture, the times not so far on time when it was part of Al-Andalus.
It should be noted that an lot of Andalusian habits and traditions were maintained here until more than a century after the first expulsions carried out by the Christians, but that ... That is another story.
This time we want to focus on what is now known as the Town of the Witches: Soportújar.
The same one that before the XVI century was known as Xabotaya, name of which origin is not clear at all. The current name refers to the arcades and have latin roots, because of it is believed to have its origin in Roman times.
It rises about 980 meters above level of the sea, hugging a rugged and complex terrain. But what about "land of witches"? Where is it´s origin?
The first legends of Soportújar
Due to the miscegenation resulting from the different peoples that have inhabited these areas and the influence of the terrain when it comes to maintaining certain customs, some legends are almost lost in the mists of the time tunnel.
Of course, it seems that the origin of that fame has an origin after the different stages of expulsion of the Andalusians (Muslims and Sephardic Jews), to a preponderance in these lands of ancestral customs more widespread in the time of what the Christian kings would have liked, and a key turning point: the Las Alpujarras Rebellion, back in the second half of the 16th century.
It was then when Felipe II wrote the Pragmatic Sanction, limiting with it all cultural activities and Islamic times traditions. It really altered the balance in this region, and after many battles they were almost definitely expelled, these lands seem to have been repopulated mainly by Galicians. Galicians with an infinity of pagan habits and traditions...
Then, the stories of meigas, coven, witches, warlocks and sorcerers who danced under the moonlight arrives to these lands. And in addition with the fact that the habits and stories of it´s former inhabitants never finished leaving, voilá, here we have the perfect context to said that Soportújar is synonymous with the Town of the Witches.
Today, we can find places as La Cueva del Ojo de la Bruja ("The Eye of the Witch Cave"), as well as countless symbols, figures and a long list of elements that do a direct reference to these legends.
