A strange and well-documented apparition phenomenon began in the small Spanish village of Belmez in August, 1971. According to Maria Gomez Pereira, a human face formed spontaneously on her cement kitchen floor. A neighbor destroyed the floor with a pickaxe and a new floor was laid, but soon a fresh face appeared in roughly the same location. This time, the mayor of Belmez forbade the destruction of the new apparition. Instead, it was cut out. |
It was believed that the Pereira house, built circa 1830, stood above a graveyard used by the Romans, Spanish Muslims, and then Medieval Christians. Indeed, subsequent digging revealed human bones buried deep beneath the home. But this cathartic affirmation did not end the phenomenon at Belmez. Faces continued to appear on the floor--both males and females; some tiny in size, some large. Their slow development was witnessed by investigators on vigil at the home. Some of the faces also quickly disappeared, fading within hours. Investigators reportedly made EVP recordings of sobbing, keening, and whispering when the Pereira house stood empty; they also unsuccessfully tried to remove the faces by scrubbing them. At one point early in the phenomenon, 5,000 people a day lined up outside to see the mysterious faces and the house was kept under 24-hour guard. The crowds in Belmez have long gone, but faces are still appearing today. BBC Correspondent Daniel Schweimler traveled to Belmez in 1999 and visited the Pereira home. Schweimler wrote: "I arrived at a small whitewashed cottage...The front door was open so I entered and found an old lady in an armchair watching a religious service on television. 'Las Caras, the faces?' I asked. 'Can I see them?' "She waved me into the small, sparsely-furnished front room and continued watching television. I looked at the floor where I'd been told the faces would be. And as soon as my eyes had become accustomed to the dim lighting, I quite clearly saw the face of a young woman. It was faint at first but gradually the definition and the details became clearer. It was a sad face. There were others - some clear, some not so clear. Images of old men and children deeply ingrained in the cement floor." Are the Belmez faces fraudulently painted? If so, Schweimler reports that the Pereiras gained little from the fraud. "All Maria appears to have gained is a new kitchen--built by the local authorities since so many visitors were walking through the original kitchen," he writes. And in all the years since the faces first began to appear, no evidence of trickery has ever been found. But are they genuine images of the dead buried beneath the Pereira family's house? The evidence doesn't clinch it. Some researchers apparently suggested a second paranormal alternative: the faces were manifested on the floor by telekinesis. The evidence? The expressions on the faces were reported to change with the mood of Maria Pereira. Update: In the summer of 2004 the Belmez house was placed on the market. Maria Pereira had passed away the previous February. Read S. Smith's excellent Leftfield-PSI article on recent and historic happenings at Belmez here.
A similar case to Belmez has been reported in Wales at Penyffordd Farm, a circa-1610 house just outside Treuddyn. According to the house's owner, Rose-Mary Gower, from the time the family moved in until late 2001, a series of paranormal events began to occur that escalated from sightings of a ghostly monk to writings, carvings, and pictures appearing on the walls of the home, on furniture, personal belongings, and in the midst of computer data. For more details on this case and photographic evidence, visit the Gowers' Web site. An interesting update by the BBC is also on the Web. |
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