By J. Felipe Alonso

MADRID – Spanish tourism needs to find new ways to attract visitors from all over the world, and for that task there is nothing better than to take advantage of local traditions, including witchcraft, as the region of Navarre has done.

That northern region has risen to the challenge of competing with the mystic traditions of Galicia, in the northwest, which up to now, because of the traditional fire spell there, has occupied the privileged position in Spanish witchcraft.

This joining of Galicia and witchcraft and the claim that there are witches in that region, however, has been superseded – at least touristically – by Navarre’s initiative to exploit the richness of its own black magic traditions.

Organizers in Navarre have set up a tour through 16 towns so that visitors can seek out and get to know, without fear, the areas where Spain’s best-known witches once lived, and perhaps still do.

The idea is not new, given the attraction that the occult has for human beings, above all the stories of witches and their use of black magic and associations with the devil, as well as the appearance of spectral beings, ghosts and the like that have been exploited successfully elsewhere.

In Britain during the 1980s and ‘90s, tourist lodgings were offered in allegedly haunted castles, and overnight reservations jumped notably in number.

To speak of witchcraft in Spain is to speak of Zugarramurdi, the cave where people from every social class gather to worship the devil in the form of a male goat. It is there, to the side of the rocky outcrop where the cave is found, that “akelarre” is celebrated.

That term, derived from the Basque words “aker” – male goat – and “larre” – field – refers to the spot where the “sorginak” (witches) gather.

Zugarramurdi is the starting point for the new tourist packages being pushed by Navarre, a magical site located along the so-called “Border, superstition and witchcraft” route.

In November 1610, 12 men and 19 women were put on trial after being accused of holding meetings with the devil.

Only 12 of the accused survived the “trial,” with six of them being burned to death and 13 dying from illness and torture in the inquisitors’ jails.

Now, the Navarre regional government’s idea is to publicize many more sites in the area that have something to do with the practices of both male and female witches, and although the epicenter is Zugarramurdi, other interesting and noteworthy places include Anocibar, Burguete and Bargota.

There are three itineraries, three routes that show tourists the history of witchcraft in Navarre, with the majority of cases ending up with the supposed witches being burned at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition.

From Burguete one can travel along the “First persecutions of witchcraft in Navarre” route, which passes through the towns of Burgui, Ochagavia, Roncesvalles and Vidangoz.

It is thought that the repression of witches began in this area, given that in 1525 five people were burned in a town plaza.

Another of the itineraries passes through the towns of Bargota and Viana, an area near the seat of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Logroño.

“Mountains and caves, between mythology and witchcraft” is another of the available tour routes, passing through Anocibar, Alli, Areso, Intza and Olague, and the route is based on mythological beliefs, the celebration of religious rituals in natural settings and the worship of the earth god Mari, practices that also resulted in inquisitorial persecutions. EFE