Baraona (alternative spelling Barahona) is a municipality located in the

province of Soria Soria is a Province (Spain), province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. Most of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. Demo ...

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

, Spain. According to the 2004

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

( INE), the municipality has a population of 211 inhabitants. It was credited in Spanish folklore as being a site where an

Akelarre ''Akelarre'' is a Basque term meaning Witches' Sabbath (a gathering of those practicing witchcraft). ''Akerra'' means male goat in the Basque language. Witches' sabbaths were envisioned as presided over by a goat. The word has been loaned to ...

Witches' Sabbath A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became especially popular in the 20th century. Origin of the phrase The most infamous and influential work of witch-hunting lor ...

was held regularly and, as such, was the subject of an

inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

in 1527 (as documented in the trials recorded in the ''Tribunal de la Inquisición de

Cuenca Cuenca may refer to: People * Cuenca (surname) Places Ecuador * Cuenca Canton, in the Azuay Province ** Cuenca, Ecuador, capital of Cuenca Canton and Azuay Province ** Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cuenca Peru * Cuenca District, Huarochirí ...

'') - the village has the alternative name Barahona de las Brujas (Barahona of the Witches). It is the site of the curious holed stone known as La Piedra de las Brujas or El Confesionario de las Brujas ("Witches' Stone" or "Witches'

Confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall where the priest from some Christian denominations sits to hear the confessions of a penitent's sins. It is the traditional venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Luther ...

") which bears an incised cross - thought to sanctify a monolith deemed to have unhallowed associations. Mention is made of the village's reputation as a well-known site of the Witches' Sabbath in the

Spanish Golden Age The Spanish Golden Age (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Siglo de Oro'', , "Golden Century"; 1492 – 1681) was a period of literature and the The arts, arts in Spain that coincided with the political rise of the Spanish Empire under the Catholic M ...

play ''Lo que quería el Marqués de Villena'' ('What the Marquis of Villena wanted') by Francisco Rojas Zorilla (1607-1648) of

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Or ...

. This takes the form of an exchange concerning the

flying ointment Flying ointment is a hallucinogenic ointment said to have been used by witches in the practice of European witchcraft from at least as far back as the Early Modern period, when detailed recipes for such preparations were first recorded and whe ...

between the eponymous Marquis and the character Zambapalo (= '

Yokel Yokel is one of several derogatory terms referring to the stereotype of unsophisticated country people. The term is of uncertain etymology and is only attested from the early 19th century on. Yokels are depicted as straightforward, simple, na� ...

' ?) The witchcraft associations of the village also form the subject of a late 20th century play by Spanish dramatist

Domingo Miras Domingo Miras Molina (5 February 1934 – 20 January 2022) was a Spanish dramatist. He won the Lope de Vega Prize in 1975 for his play ''De San Pascual a San Gil'' and the Tirso de Molina Prize in 1980 for ''Las alumbradas de la Encarnación Ben ...

(born 1934), entitled ''Las Brujas de Barahona'' ('The Witches of Baraona' ,1978).Serrano, Virtudes. ''El teatro de Domingo Miras''. Editum, 1991.

References

Municipalities in the Province of Soria Witches' Sabbath {{Soria-geo-stub

See also

References