The only excommunicated and damned village in Spain
It is a hamlet of some 80 registered inhabitants and is about 100km from Zaragoza city
Its name is Trasmoz and dates from the XIII century, the era of sorcery and killing the wicked witches, and in 1252 Trasmoz was excommunicated by the Monastery in Veruela (Zaragoza) converting it into a secular territory and remains so today, unless the Pope overturns the order.
Trasmoz - Archive photo
In 1267 several locals found false coins inside the castle, and decided to hide them to extend the legends of the presence of witches which justified the noise generated by the minting of the coins.
In 1511 the monks of the local abbey reunited to condemn the hamlet using the reading of Psalm 108 of the Book of Psalms, but that was only the beginning.
In the middle of the XIX century, a plague of illnesses and deaths cover all the region and this was blamed on a local witch named Joaquina Bona Sánchez – the ‘barking aunt’ – who allegedly was able to control all the witches’ powers. In 1860 they raided her home and executed her for her sorcery.
Today, Trasmoz continues to generate legends, something exaggerated every year at Halloween. The 80 or so residents celebrate ‘the light of cheer’ on the Saturday closest to New Saints Eve -´October 31 and the Witchcraft Fair on the first Saturday in July.
