Soportujar - A Witchy Place
Although we were only staying a few days in Granada, we wanted to venture out and experience some of the smaller towns in Andalucia. In particular, it turned out we were next to a region called Alpujarra, famous for its white mountain villages. We came upon this information accidentally, yet again thanks to Masha’s penchant for socializing with everyone she meets. While getting a massage, she got a full download on the region, including a special place that came up in none of our previous Google searches — Soportujar.
Soportujar is about an hour’s drive from Granada along a dramatic and twisty mountain road with incredible views and panoramas of the hilly landscape (but not terribly twisty: both Masha and Alya, susceptible to carsickness, were fine). You pass other similar villages along the way
As you approach, Soportujar looks like any other whitewashed villages in south of Spain — or Greece for that matter — with houses creeping up the slopes of the green mountains. Visitors are not allowed to drive into center, which is probably for the best, as the streets are narrow and windy. Only upon entering the town by foot, do you glimpse its main attraction. Of the Alpujarra villages, Soportujar is known as the “village of witches.”
The centuries-old village has a rich history of witchcraft and mysticism, which they have heavily leaned into over the past century with an eye to boosting tourism (there is also a Buddhist temple on the outskirt of the village reportedly inaugurated by the Dalai Lama himself, but it didn’t seem like many visitors were coming for the temple). It is said that when the town was repopulated by Christians after the expulsion of the Moors in the 17th century, the new settlers from Galicia brought legends of witches and sorcerers with them. Ironically, these legends caused the surrounding villages to attribute witchcraft to the new residents themselves
Baba Yaga & Alya, hanging out
Everything about the town has become penetrated/soaked by the occult, from the street names, to the themed shops, to endless statues around the town edging into full-on kitsch. It is as if the village decided to permanently dedicate itself to a kind of folk pre-Hershey’s Halloween and invited a bunch of mid-level artists to just go to town
Instagrammable all the way...
In the process, they pretty clearly started to collect witch-related myths from outside of Spain — hello Baba Yaga’s house!
Стоит изба на курьих ножках, стоит без окон и дверей
There is even a museum of witchcraft at the entrance to the village. Its two rooms didn’t quite live up to expectations…
Alya liked taking pictures there with creepy things
Soportujar may not be the #1 attraction in Andalucia, but if you’re staying in Granada for more than a few days with kids, it is definitely worth a day trip for the variety, the Galician pub food (fresh and delicious in the hills) and the views. Your kids (if they don’t get car sick) will appreciate it :)
