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[Since 1997, the town of Viladrau has been shedding light on its history of witch trials. Several streets were named in honor of the women killed.Credit: Lucía Benavides/The World] |
"About 400 hundred years ago, in the small Catalan village of Viladrau, 14 women were accused of witchcraft, tortured and hanged. At the time — between 1618 and 1622 — there were fewer than 10
“We’ve gone down in history for being the town with the biggest witch hunt in Catalonia,” said Noemí Bastias, the town’s mayor. “But they weren’t witches — they were marginalized women like widows, immigrants and herbalists.”
Last month, the regional Catalan government in northeast Spain passed a resolution to pardon up to 1,000 people executed for witchcraft in Catalonia 400 years ago...
Witch hunts relied heavily on accusations from neighbors who were desperate for scapegoats whenever bad luck struck the town — such as crop failures, sudden diseases or natural disasters."
Read more from source at PRI and listen to story here.
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