“IS true, it was the devil who brought me to Aiguafreda ». Elisabet Martì, he confessed on July 28, 1620 in the Vic prison (Barcelona). A confession extracted under torture. Arrived while tied with her arms behind her back e suspended from the ceiling by means of a pulley. It was necessary for them to hang several times, 11 precisely, before the woman slipped to the ground lifeless.
The unjust end of the alleged witches
The case of Martí is just one of them many death sentences for witchcraft occurred in Catalonia between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Period in which the witch hunt, unleashed between 1616 and 1622, became extraordinarily intense.
It was a real psychosis. Witches were seen everywhere and it was believed that in some places all women were without exception. It is estimated that, on charges of witchcraft, there were more than 400 people, for the overwhelming majority women, executed. The executions by hanging took place in the town square or on the gallows installed in clearly visible places.
Witches: Catalonia rehabilitates and honors them
But now Catalonia wants to catch up. And, after thousands of years, he proposed not only to claim, but to ennoble the memory of the victims of that terrible persecution. The project proposed by the various local administrations and presented in Parliament is precisely that of name some streets of the municipalities involved, to those who have been unjustly executed.
When it is approved, people will be able to find themselves living, for example, in Calle de la Maria Joaneta, in Calle Antònia Rosquellas or in Calle Margarida Puig aka Cassadora, three of the 14 women, including a 12-year-old girl, hanged in the town of Viladrau in Girona.
The initiative launched by Sapiens magazine
The initiative is part of a broader campaign launched by the historic Sapiens magazine, which also includes a documentary, a series of conferences and an interactive map. With the slogan “They weren’t witches, they were women“Wants to make known what was the witch hunt in Catalonia. And at the same time present the results of the research carried out over the last ten years, he explained to Paìs Pau Castell, historian at the University of Barcelona.
Specialist in witch hunts, Castell devoted his thesis to the subject, considering it as a starting point a new scientific approach to the phenomenon: «The policy of remembrance and the remedial act are fundamental initiatives already launched in other European countries where the persecution has been very intense, especially in the north. The idea is that the trials that took place for witchcraft crimes were totally devoid of legal guarantees and minimum compliance with the law ”
This is why a project that restores justice and dignity to innocent victims. “It is necessary to repair the mistake that was made against those poor people, who were made to die only for a suspicion“.
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