Las Alpujarras: Soportújar, land of witches...
The Alpujarras, that vast land that stretches from the province of Granada to the province of Almería, with its imposing geography that has defined so much of its history, where Boabdil took refuge after selling the Nasrid jewel, or on whose highest peak the great Mulay Hacén was buried. In these lands with an infinity of secrets lies Soportújar, known today as the Pueblo de las Brujas (Witches' Village).
A bit of history
We are talking about a land through which, since immemorial time´s, countless peoples have passed. From Celts and Iberians to great empires such as ancient Rome, which in turn gave way to the different Visigothic peoples. All until the arrival of the Muslim culture, the not so distant times when it was part of Al-Andalus.
It is worth noting that many Andalusian customs 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...
On this occasion we would like to focus on what is known today as the Witches' Village: Soportújar.
Before the 16th century it was known as Xabotaya, a name whose origin is unknown. Its current toponym, as is easy to imagine, refers to the arcades and is believed to have its origin in Roman times given its Latin roots.
It rises some 980 metres above sea level, embracing an abrupt, complex terrain. But what about the ‘land of witches’, where does it originate?
The first legends of Soportújar
Although due to the interbreeding resulting from the different peoples who have inhabited these areas and the influence of the terrain in maintaining certain customs, some legends are almost lost in the mists of the tunnel of time.
However, it seems that the origin of the fame it enjoys today is due to the different stages of the expulsion of the Andalusians (Muslims and Sephardic Jews), to a preponderance in these lands of ancestral customs more extended in time than the Christian kings would have wished, and to a key turning point: the Rebellion of the Alpujarras, in the second half of the 16th century.
It was then that Philip II drew up the so-called Pragmatic Sanction, limiting all cultural activity and Islamic customs. This upset the balance of power in this region, and once they were almost definitively expelled after numerous battles, it seems that these lands were repopulated mainly by Galicians. Galicians with an infinity of pagan habits and customs...
It is then when the stories of meigas, akelarres, witches, warlocks and sorcerers who danced in the moonlight arrived in a preponderant way to these lands. And if we add to this the fact that the customs and stories of its ancient inhabitants never really went away, voilá, here we have the perfect cocktail so that nowadays Soportújar is synonymous with Pueblo de Brujas.