Witches of Montseny

Witches of Montseny and the events of Viladrau.

Viladrau is a mountain village located in the heart of the Montseny range, at 821m / (2,693ft) above see level .

In Viladrau, some events were associated with witchcraft in 1620. Residents of this village discovered some witches of Montseny living along the north forest of the Matagalls. These evil witches celebrated covens and pagan orgies there.

The Grimoire book by Pope Honorius-1760- describes the coven very well with all kinds of details, a concordance to astrologie with a list of angels and demons too.

According to popular imaginary, witches didn’t go to covens flying over their brooms. Instead that, they flew following the procedure: “ In front of the hearth, they spreaded ointments on their armpits  and pronounced a magic formula that said: -‘over a leaf and go to where it ride me’-, then with their feet on the fire, they flew troughout the chimney towards the devilish coven”.

During the coven, the witches danced a circle dance. This dance was done as well in prehistoric times. Celts related it to the moon and the circular shape of dolmens. This dance is also considered linked to the constellations, around the polar star. Many legends describe how the origen of the sardana (trad dance in Catalonia) comes from the circle dance of witches. The devil liked this wild dance following the high shrill sound of the piccolo.

Really, covens did not exist. The witches persecutors imagined there were devilish meetings in which the accused people met the devil. Thus, the Holy Inquisition punished poor wretches to death at the stake.

To understand these facts, we must taken into account the witch hunt. This took place on 16th and 17th centuries. At this time, some women accused of witchcraft were burned at the stake. In Montseny area we find 14 people in Viladrau, 8 in Granollers, 12 in Caldes de Montbui and 3 in Andorra.

Every confession was obtained under torture methods. If the accused did not confess,  torture will increase the pain until an affirmative answer. Viladrau centre was the stage where witches died.