Baraona (alternative spelling Barahona) is a municipality located in the

province of Soria Soria is a Province (Spain), province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. Most of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. Demogr ...

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

, Spain. According to the 2004

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

(

INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional de Estatística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional Elec ...

), the municipality has a population of 211 inhabitants. It was credited in Spanish folklore as being a site where an

Akelarre ''Akelarre'' is the Basque term meaning Witches' Sabbath (the place where witches hold their meetings). ''Akerra'' means male goat in the Basque language. Witches' sabbaths were envisioned as presided over by a goat. The word has been loaned t ...

Witches' Sabbath A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became popular in the 20th century. Origins In 1668, Johannes Praetorius published his literary work "Blockes-Berges Verrichtu ...

was held regularly and, as such, was the subject of an

inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

in 1527 (as documented in the trials recorded in the ''Tribunal de la Inquisición de Cuenca'') - the village has the alternative name Barahona de las Brujas (Barahona of the Witches). It is the site of the curious holed stone known as La Piedra de las Brujas or El Confesionario de las Brujas ("Witches' Stone" or "Witches'

Confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall in which the priest in some Christian churches sits to hear the confessions of penitents. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches, but sim ...

") which bears an incised cross - thought to sanctify a monolith deemed to have unhallowed associations. Mention is made of the village's reputation as a well-known site of the Witches' Sabbath in the

Spanish Golden Age The Spanish Golden Age ( es, Siglo de Oro, links=no , "Golden Century") is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise of the Spanish Empire under the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and the Spanish H ...

play ''Lo que quería el Marqués de Villena'' ('What the Marquis of Villena wanted') by Francisco Rojas Zorilla (1607-1648) of

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

. This takes the form of an exchange concerning the flying ointment between the eponymous Marquis and the character Zambapalo (= ' Yokel' ?) The witchcraft associations of the village also form the subject of a late 20th century play by Spanish dramatist Domingo Miras (born 1934), entitled ''Las Brujas de Barahona'' ('The Witches of Baraona' ,1978).Serrano, Virtudes. ''El teatro de Domingo Miras''. Editum, 1991.

References

Municipalities in the Province of Soria {{Soria-geo-stub

See also

References