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Italian witch trials

Triora is a small village located in the region of Liguria in Italy, the town is known as the “Italian Salem” because of the famous Witch’s trial occurred there in the 16th century. It was 1587 when after two years of famine the village leaders and the elder’s council decided that such a tragedy was the result of the evil doing of a bunch of local women, all accused of mingling with the devil. The accused women were mainly prostitutes or poor women emarginated in the Cabotina, a district populated by meager people located outside the town walls. Nobody complained when a bunch of wretched women without a penny were accused of witchcraft, but things quickly changed when the accusations spread like oil and invested the wealthier women of Triora’s society.

Genoa sent over to Triora Giulio Scribani, a former local magistrate, nominated special commissioner for the case. Scribani sent thirteen women to the prison of Genoa and raged throughout the area opening new cases and causing innocent women to die. Genoa, the Inquisition, and the Church itself tried to intervene and to stop the trials but Scribani went ahead; in Triora and neighboring villages such as Andagna, Bajardo, and Montalto Ligure the deaths of many innocent people were recorded. In 1589 after two years of persecutions the trials were closed by the Inquisition, little is known about what happened to the women that were sent to Genoa, but dozens were the women imprisoned, and those who did not burn to death, died from the torture they endured. Historians agree in saying that the reasons behind the accusations, were possibly that local landowners wanted to rise food prices to increase their income causing people to become unable to buy food to sustain themselves and their families. Blaming the death of hunger-stricken people on witchcraft was a perfect way out.

Today the town honor the memory of the events with a museum dedicated to the witch hunt, trials and witchcraft, but the geographic area is still connected with its mysterious and magical past.

Escape before the dawn, oil on canvas. — Devinez