The village of Trasmoz, Spain, has only a few dozen year-round residents, but it's a mecca for thousands of people who take part in their witchcraft festival every July. Or visit their sorcery museum any time of the year. Trasmoz is a cursed village, and has taken that status to heart, becoming the Spanish equivalent of Salem, Massachusetts.
Its unorthodox past goes back to a series of squabbles that began more than 700 years ago. At the time, Trasmoz was a prosperous community of Christians, Jews and Arabs with a powerful adversary: the neighbouring monastery of Veruela.
A quarrel between the two over whether villagers could fell trees in the area for firewood came to a head in 1252, leading the monastery’s abbot to demand that Trasmoz be excommunicated from the Catholic church. “One could call it a tantrum,” said Ruiz.
I didn't know a town could be excommunicated. But that was only the beginning. Another dispute 250 years later saw the abbot put a curse on the town. The villagers mainly shrugged and went on with their lives. Afterward, Trasmoz's reputation provided a handy cover for crimes, such as counterfeiting and even murder. But when other Spanish villages began to use local themed festivals to draw tourists, Trasmoz knew what it had to do. Read about the cursed village of Trasmoz at The Guardian.