Carreró de les Bruixes: a signal indicates the entrance to this alley, rumored to be a meeting place for witches!

In the past this street was called Carrer Sant Bernat.
However, as popular belief spread that witches met in this odd covered passageway, the name was changed, not by chance, in Carreró de les Bruixes, literally, Alley of Witches.
It has an elongated layout, parallel to that of Carrer Major, with sections covered with arched vaults, and others that pass in the open air.

We are in the town of Cervera, in the province of Lleida, within the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain, dated back to medieval times.
The little settlement grew from a few houses into a fortress, with its neighborhoods made of terraced houses.
It was a walled town where the outer walls of the houses served as defensive purpose.
Carreró de les Bruixes is located near these outer walls, with a series of bridges linking the houses and gardens outside the walls, formed the gloomy, winding alley.
According to the legend, witches used to meet in this alley on nights lit by the the full moon to share their spells.
As a silent evidence of this, there are a number of symbols that mark the street’s magical history such as the sun and the moon, cauldron, tarot cards, black cats or the hand and the cross, an esoteric emblem that relates palmistry and femininity, but also signs as the macabre dance, the fire (a main element of Witches’ Sabbath), and goat horns.
Many of these symbols were put in place in the 1870s by the artist Jaume Castells.

Either way, thanks to the popularity of Carreró de les Bruixes, in the late 70s was born an initiative to perform a Witches’ Sabbath party, Aquelarre de Cervera.
The name translates as “witches’ Sabbath” or “coven” in English, and the term is originally Basque: “aker” means goat, and “larre” means field, referring to a witch get-together, in which the witches would carry out a ritual with the devil in order to obtain their supernatural powers.
The first festival dates back to 1978, and every August ever since, the city congregates to worship the devil through shows, fireworks and music.
Traditionally, Correfocs (people dressed as devils) parade around the city holding sparklers, and then enters the devil incarnate. The demonic goat, otherwise known as the “Mascle Cabró” every year he sports a different attire.
The climax of this parade is centered around sexuality, with Mascle Cabró aroused by the witches and their erotic dances.
Located atop a 20-meter crane, the devil ejaculates thousands of liters of water from an oversized phallus over the public.
And yes, you read correctly: an oversized phallus!

Images from web – Google Research