32 - Witch way home? - Barrio Señorio de Bertiz, Zugarramundi, and Dax

 Thursday, 28 December 2023

Sadly, it it's time to bring this 10 day road trip to a close.  I won't start work until January 2, 2024 but getting back a bit early will allow me to rest a bit and air out the dirty laundry I've accumulated.  The overall goal was simple: drive from Pamplona back to Dax.  Since there wasn't anything pressing on the agenda, I slept in and then checked the route for possible parks to visit on the way back.     

Before departing Pamplona, I wanted to correct my mistake in Tudela the previous day and try some pintxos for breakfast.  To my surprise, there were people in the bar ordering beer with their pintxos at 10 AM; I guess you can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning.  

A cafe, a pintxo with txistorra and a pintxo of (I assume scallop) paste & cheese in a scallop shell

During my morning search online, I found that the Navarran Parque Natural Señorio de Bertiz was really close to my route home.  So my first stop was a 45 minute drive to the Bertizko Turismo Bulegoa, where I hoped to learn a bit about the park and what would be worthwhile doing in the afternoon.  The guy at the desk didn't speak great English and mi espanol (castellano) esta muy malo alors on a parlé en français.  Turns out the tourist office has information about more than just this natural park but about the broader region of Baztan and Bidasoa, which is a Basque region made up of 4 valleys in the Pyrénées.  

I did a short hike in the park; I didn't feel I had the time nor energy to do the >20 km hike to the summit of Mount Aizkolegi (despite that seeming like the best route to take) so I did a much shorter trail.  Sadly, there wasn't a whole lot to see on my hike aside from it being a nice walk in the woods.  There appeared to be some serious efforts made to combat invasive species (a team of three people with chainsaws were hacking up invasive laurels and making brush piles) and to restore patches of native trees.  

Just a walk in the woods with brush piles made from invasive species

I don't think the picture does it justice, but I thought that the bird in question had a pretty big wingspan

It's so weird to see palm fronds in a forest like this

A kiln for making lime

I didn't see any citrus inside

One of the fields for planting castaño europeo (sweet chestnut)

No idea what kinda of tree this used to be, but it caught my eye

This one also caught my (fung)eye

After finishing my hike, I consulted the info I'd received from the tourism office and remembered that the Navarre museum had included some pre-historic human artifacts from los cuevas de Urdax (the caves of Urdax); so I put that next into the GPS.  It was a slow, twisty drive through the mountains to the town of Urdax but I made good time.  Sadly, it turns out that les grottes d'Urdax are only visitable via guided tour (the cave is completely underground) and that the last tour for the day had already departed (confirmed via a conversation en français au lieu d'en espanol).  But the guy at the desk of Urdax was able to confirm that the nearby cave of Zugarramundi was open today and, that it being an open system, I would have no issue seeing those caves today.  

A view of Larrun, where I'd hiked about 10 days ago

It was another quick drive from Urdax (Urdazubi in Basque/Euskal) to Zugarramurdi with plenty of cyclists on the road.  I hadn't realized it at first but the weather in this part of the Pyrénées was nearly 70F today but with a decent wind blowing.  The parking lot was located a decent walk from the caves but along the way I found a museum about witches.  Having seen the caves, I suppose they could make a fairly idealistic location for a coven but I don't think that that actually ever happened.  The size of the cave was certainly impressive as well as the effort put into stabilizing the system, lighting it, and making it accessible to tourists.  Overall, I'd say the 5 Euro to see the cave was well worth it!  

Spotted a bumblebee taking a breather and seeking shelter from the wind; or the mountains have begun their winter dearth.

It's an impressively large passage carved by a river

"This - this hole...  This hole was made for me!  I - I have to go in!" - The Enigma of Amigara Fault

Highly recommend a quick read for those who want some goosebumps 

The little river that could (given thousands of years)

From the observation deck above the cave

I could totally see having a rager of an akallare (Basque for Black Sabbath with akerra meaning male goat) in these caves

The exit from the cave brought me right back to the witchcraft museum.  Turns out the museum is open from 10:30 - 12:30 in the morning and 16 - 16:30 in the afternoon; since it was 4:15 PM, I popped my head in and was able to see the museum with an English clipboard!  Definitely an interesting museum: while witch hunts occurred all over Europe at various times, the town of Zugarramurdi was the epicenter of a witch hunt by the Spanish Inquisition that ultimately caused the Inquisition to change its rules about how investigations should be conducted and saw the Inquisition stop hunting witches about 100 years earlier than most of Europe (not that that's a particularly amazing bar to surpass haha and the inquisition still had plenty of other heresies to pursue).  

These posts with the names of the accused were an impactful image.  Say what you will about the Spanish Inquisition, but at least their bureaucracy did a good job keeping record of people, places, and things.

Hey, I think I recognize that cave.  Perhaps it served as a smugglers' haven at one point.

Overall, the clipboard did a good job of informing about the museum and history; numbers and maps linked exhibits to explanations.

From reading the displays at the museum, it seems it was a real confluence of factors that resulted in the $hitshow that the witch hunts became: uneducated rural folk, a language barrier between the Spanish/Castellana Inquisition and the Basque population, Basque pagan traditions being adapted to the region's "new" Christian religion, and commerce/smuggling with the French border.  It goes something like this:

1. In what may have been a joke or a ploy for attention, a 20 year old Basque woman was eventually forced to confess to her local church that she had participated in witchcraft
2. This admission was relayed to the region's monastery in Logroño whose abbot wanted more authority to search mule trains from France for contraband and likely informed the Spanish Inquisition about the witchcraft incident in the hopes of bringing more resources from the Holy Office (a branch of the Navarran Royal Court to persecute those who would pervert the Christian/Catholic faith).
3. Two Inquistors are dispatched to Zugarramundi and after 4 months they conclude that there was indeed a sect of witches in these mountains.  The inquisitors arrested 4 woman from Zugarramurdi and took them back to Logroño, when 6 people from the town came to inquire about the fate of those women, the 6 were also arrested.  All 10 were found guilty of witchcraft based on confessions (whether by torture or via assurances of lighter sentences i.e. plea deals)
4. One Inquisitor returns to Zugarramundi to follow up on what is clearly a region with a strong witch presence.  They end up arresting about 30 more people.  Meanwhile, the entire Basque region of Navarre is scoured by the Inquisition for witch activities.  
5. The prisoners are vetted in Logroño.  Most accused required an interpreter as they didn't speak Castellan, others were simply tortured until confession.  The Holy Office and Inquisition didn't have to tell the prisoners what they were accused of until interrogation nor inform family/friends of the whereabouts of the incarcerated.
6. In 1610, an Auto De Fe is held.  Nearly 30,000 people attend the ceremony where sentences of the prisoners are revealed.  6 people are burned alive, 5 who had died in prison have their remains and an effigy burned (they didn't confess before dying and thus were clearly unrepentant witches), 21 people are pardoned, 6 are flogged, and 15 sentenced to humiliation or confinement/forced labor.  Total cost of the Auto De Fe is estimated at 2,541 reales (I've no idea what that is in modern money but I imagine it wasn't cheap back then).
7. Confessions from some of the captives were so absurd that one skeptical inquisitor (Alonso de Salazar) becomes critical of the validity of a witch presence in the region.  But too late, the Auto De Fe kicks off an era of mass panic in the mountains with neighbors turning on each other, lynching, and general chaos.
8. The skeptical inquisitor eventually convinces the church to allow him to issue an Edict of Grace and silence (please stop talking about witches), he travels through the region and collects 1,802 confessions of witchcraft (~1,400 by children) and > 5,000 accusations over 8 months.  5 years later, 5,000 accused still haven't been processed.  Famous quote from Alonso de Salazar: "There were no witches or bewitched people in the place until people started talking and writing about them".  Alonso's approach to witches is starkly in opposition to the other two inquisitors who had originally kicked this beehive; Alonso wants all the witches acquitted due to lack of evidence while the other two refuse to budge.  
9. As every lynched soul is one less for the church to claim, the Inquisitor General and Supreme council eventually decree a suspension in 1614 of the Inquisition's witch hunts.  They follow much of Alonso de Salazar's advice in advising inquisitors to require greater rigor in evidence, the net effect is a reduction of penalties and the Inquisition ceases to burn witches.

I like quote 23: if you die during torture, that's on you for not confessing in a timely manner and is tantamount to a confession of guilt

Man, makes me glad to be alive in current times; no matter how bad things may look now, most likely we are still living in the best of times due to rational thought.  Oddly, during the witch hunts, non-belief in witchcraft (and that it was evil) was itself heretical and worthy of persecution; I guess not believing in witches means you don't believe in the devil, and that's just a skip and a jump away from the big no-no.  

From Zugarramundi, it was about an hour's drive back to Dax.  Once I reached home base, I quickly showered and then started laundry to clean all the dirty clothes I'd accumulated over the past 10 days.  In seeking tokens for the laundry machine, I stumbled upon what appeared to be a gathering for tenants in my hotel.  Turns out most of the other people staying here are well retired but the hotel manager did a great job of introducing me and I had a great time chatting with people, eating shrimp, bulots, pâté en croute, and cheese while drinking wine.  

I made it back in one piece, mission complete!

Overall, I really enjoyed my road trip around the Pyrénées and I'm glad I took the opportunity to do it.  My time in Spain was wonderful; even if I don't really speak the language, I had a great time and I was able to communicate with ingles ou francais the entire trip.  The mountains are an important presence and I feel I've only just scratched their surface even if I circumnavigated them; I suppose the mountains are in competition with the natural and cultural impacts that the Atlantic and Mediterranean too.

 Thinking about it, I think the highlight for me was my visit to Chateau de Queribus and the drive through Cathare country.  Just to rattle off a few other cool items:

• Pic du Midi had an excellent view and while I didn't spend too much time in the museum part I believe it has an interesting history too.
• Teatro Dali museum was an interesting delve into the works of a surrealist I'd only a cursory knowledge of before.
• The weather in Catalunya was really pleasant and I saw a lot of interesting birds
• I enjoyed Park Guell the most of my Gaudi experiences in Barcelona simply because it was so open and pleasant to walk about.

Not bad experiences, but items I would substitute out for a similar itinerary:

• Abbaye de Fontfroide; it wasn't terrible but I think I would have preferred a hike in the nature park by Narbonne more.  
• I also wouldn't have minded trading in my 2nd day of skiing on the green trails of La Mongie for something else; I feel I made good use of my time at La Mongie but I think I really only needed 1 day of skiing.  
• Oh, and I'd trade in my visit to the Gala castle museum for the Dali house museum in Portlligat.  

It's with a bit of sadness that I conclude this vacation, but I realize that the adventure isn't over; after all, I'm still in France for at least another month!  There's still plenty to see and do on the weekends in France and even Spain if I so choose.