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All Spain Bélmez de la Moraleda Bélmez Faces

Bélmez Faces

Mysterious face-like images that appeared within an Andalusian house are surrounded by legends of the paranormal.

Bélmez de la Moraleda, Spain

Added By
Luis Morato
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A 1992 blurry image of a woman.   Cesar Tort/CC BY-SA 3.0
A 1992 blurry image of a woman.   Cesar Tort/CC BY-SA 3.0
Maria Gómez house in 2012, with a sign indicating the schedule of visits.   De Degeefe / CC BY-SA 3.0
One of the intriguing figures removed from the floor   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
María Gómez granddaughter points a stain on the floor   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
The first of the faces of Bélmez, called “la Pava,” photographed in May 2012.   Degeefe/CC BY-SA 3.0
Image of “La Pava” in 2022   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
Portrait of María Gómez in the kitchen of the house   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
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About

In 1971 strange stains began to appear on the kitchen floor of a house in Bélmez de La Moraleda, a little village in Andalusia. The eerie markings seemed to represents the faces of people, sparking a decades-long interest in the “Bélmez Faces.”

In August 1971, María Gómez Cámara noticed a stain forming on her concrete kitchen floor which, later, seemed to turn into a disturbing face. Not only that, but the stain appeared to have moved positions.

María tried to scrub the face away, but nothing worked. Her husband and son destroyed the stain with a pick-axe and re-cemented the floor.

As it turns out, their efforts were in vain. The face reappeared a week later, alongside others. The rumor spread quickly and everyone talked about “house of faces," which drew a lot of visitors to the house. Everybody wanted to see this unexplained phenomenon for themselves.

Experts from the world of parapsychology rushed to this place and coincided in cataloging the phenomenon as a great mystery. They allegedly even recorded psychophonies in the house. According to local legend, when people excavated the floor while examining the property, they found skeletons buried below.

After this discovery, a new floor was cast in concrete and everybody thought that the phenomenon had vanished for good. But two weeks later another face, different from the ones before, began to appear.

However, skeptics believe the whole ordeal was a hoax. They’ve come to the conclusion that the family used some kind of paint or chemical agent to create the images as a way to draw tourists to their house and turn a profit.

Maria Gómez Cámara died in 2004, but the strange stains, maybe now even more distorted, are still there.

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Houses Paranormal Skeletons Legends Homes

Know Before You Go

From Jaen, access it the by the state road N-323a and then take regional road A-324 eastward toward Cambil/Huelma until you reach Bélmez de la Moraleda.

Community Contributors

Added By

Luis Morato

Edited By

Meg

  • Meg

Published

November 10, 2017

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Sources
  • https://www.historicmysteries.com/belmez-faces/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9lmez_Faces
  • https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caras_de_B%C3%A9lmez
Bélmez Faces
5 Calle Maria Gomez
Bélmez de la Moraleda
Spain
37.724056, -3.38102
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