Canillo Leads Andorra's Witch Hunts with 30 Accusations, 6 Executions 1450-1621

Canillo recorded the highest number of witchcraft accusations against women in Andorra's history, with around 30 cases between 1450 and 1621, six of which ended in execution by hanging.

Researchers Robert Pastor and the Terra de Bruixes portal have documented these events, drawing from 160 preserved trial records spanning 1430 to 1689. Across Andorra, about 50 women faced the gallows for alleged sorcery, poisoning, or devil worship—charges that included causing livestock deaths, storms, hailstorms, avalanches, and even infant murders. All were hanged, except Maria Guida from Lauredana, burned at the stake in 1471.

Canillo's cases began around 1450 with five women: Na Duranda and Na Ostalera from Canillo, Na Palesa from Llorts, Na Garreta from Les Bons, and Na Vidala from Puiol. Four were executed by high gallows, a method reserved for witches and poisoners; Na Palesa received exile instead. Evidence for Na Duranda and Na Ostalera survives indirectly through the 1450 trial of Na Duranda's daughter Margarida, where a Gascon labourer testified that authorities had hanged her mother as a witch or poisoner. Margarida escaped punishment after interrogation, despite an accusation involving a toad allegedly jumping from her skirt during a deadly livestock disease outbreak.

Civil courts in Corts, not the Inquisition, handled these trials, often using torture like the estrep—binding hands behind the back and hoisting victims by pulley—or the polze, which suspended them by the thumbs. Confessions followed swiftly.

Notable Canillo executions included Maria Rossell, known as La Branqueta, hanged in 1604 after two prior trials in 1593; her sister Peyrona Gastona's case referenced the sentence. Joana Tomassa, or Serquella, from El Tarter faced four accusations: surviving estrep and polze torture in 1593 (possibly due to pregnancy), receiving lashes in 1602, lashes and perpetual exile in 1604, and execution in 1608 for returning home—she was hanged near the Santa Creu chapel on Tossal d'en Mascaró. In 1621, during the final major wave, Maria Naudia was hanged at "Cantó del Quer" in Canillo, and Magdalena Riba, known as Naudina from Meritxell, at Andorra la Vella's plaza.

The last Andorran case, Maria Bernada in 1689, ended in acquittal.