Zugarramurdi is a town and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located in the province and autonomous community of

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

in northern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It passed into history as the setting of alleged occult activity featured in the infamous Basque witch trials held in

Logroño Logroño ( , , ) is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja (Spain), La Rioja, Spain. Located in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, primarily in the right (South) bank of the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of pa ...

in the seventeenth century. The town is home to the Basque witch museum and the ''Witch Caves''. Every year, spectacular fires are lit in the caves near Zugarramurdi for the celebration of the ‘day of the witch’ on the

summer solstice The summer solstice or estival solstice occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). The summer solstice is the day with the longest peri ...

.Article about ''The Day of the Witch'' on easyjet.com
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Etymology

Zugarramurdi is a toponym with unknown meaning, even though it comes from Basque. The philologist Koldo Mitxelena proposed that the etymology of the name could be “place with abundancy of ruined elms”, coming from zugar (elm) + andur (ruined) + the suffix –di (it indicates abundancy). However, Mitxelena himself admitted not having proof about this theory. In Basque and in Spanish it seems that the name of the village is transcribed in the same way, although the z is pronounced differently in both languages. Because of that, the pronunciation slightly varies.

Legend

It is said that the word “ akelarre” comes from the field next to one of the small Zugarramurdi caves, where the witch meetings used to take place. The Basque word akelarre means “the field of the he-goat”, as well as 'witches sabbath'. Those present in the meetings used to call the caves from this field, because in it, a big black he-goat used to graze (called Akerbeltz in Basque). It is said the he-goat turned into a human when the witches gathered, so it is thought the goat was the devil itself. This is why Zugarramurdi is often called “The Cathedral of the Devil”. The legend of Zugartamurdi is the main plot of the 2013 Spanish film, ''La brujas de Zugarramurdi'' (in English, it is ''

Witching and Bitching ''Witching & Bitching'' (; ) is a 2013 Spanish comedy horror film directed and co-written by Álex de la Iglesia. It stars Hugo Silva, Mario Casas, and Carmen Maura. It won the most awards at the 28th Goya Awards with eight wins out of ten no ...

'').

Gallery

File:Zugarramurdi 1.jpg, Street of Zugarramurdi File:Zugarramurdi 2.jpg, Typical architecture File:Iglesia zugarramurdi.jpg, Asunción Church File:Zugarramurdi cueva.jpg, The "Cave of the Witches" near Akelarre in Zugarramurdi

References

External links

Homepage of Zugarramurdi

ZUGARRAMURDI in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia (Euskomedia Fundazioa)
Municipalities in Navarre {{navarre-geo-stub