Perched in the upper Argentina valley, in the hinterland of Imperia, Triora is a stone village that carries a heavy nickname: the village of witches. The name does not come from a legend but from a documented event. Between 1587 and 1589 Triora was the scene of one of the most serious episodes of witch-hunting in early modern Italy, and its story helps us understand how a persecution is born, grows and comes to a halt.
The context: a village in crisis
In the late sixteenth century Triora was an important centre under the rule of the Republic of Genoa, with an economy tied to agriculture and to the trade of the valleys. In 1587 a severe famine struck the area. Harvests were lost, grain was scarce, prices were rising.
In situations like this, communities of the old regime looked for an explanation and, often, for someone to blame. Collective misfortune was read as the effect of malevolent action: someone, it was thought, had made the crops, the livestock, the children die. The first rumours focused on some of the village women.
How the trial unfolded
The sequence of events, reconstructed by historians from the surviving papers, follows a pattern found in many other European persecutions.
- The community's requests. The local authorities asked the ecclesiastical authorities to intervene and investigate the alleged evil deeds.
- The first inquiries. A vicar of the bishop of Albenga and an inquisitor began the interrogations. The first accused women, under pressure and torture, named others.
- The widening of the accusations. The number of suspects grew quickly, also involving women from families that were not marginal. Some died while in detention.
- Genoa steps in. The Republic of Genoa sent a commissioner, Giulio Scribani, who conducted the proceedings with extreme harshness, extending the inquiries to neighbouring villages.
- The persecution is halted. Protests from part of the community and doubts about the procedures brought the matter before the Holy Office in Rome, which took over the case and curbed the commissioner's actions.
The final outcomes for the individual accused are not all clear in the sources: this is one of the reasons the affair remains a subject of study.
The role of the Roman Inquisition
One aspect that surprises those who know the popular image of the Inquisition is that, in Italy, the Roman Holy Office was often more cautious than secular or local courts in matters of witchcraft. Roman instructions of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries recommended prudence in accepting confessions, checks on the alleged harm and limits on the use of torture.
The Triora case is an example of this dynamic: the most violent phase coincided with the civil commissioner's actions, while Rome's intervention helped bring it to an end. This does not make the Inquisition a gentle institution, but it shows how much more complex real history is than commonplaces.
The places of the legend
Over time a rich oral tradition has settled around the historical facts. Some places in and around the village are associated with the witches:
- La Cabotina, an area on the outskirts of the village, identified by tradition as the meeting place of the alleged witches;
- the old carrugi, the narrow lanes and covered passages of the historic centre, where popular memory places their homes;
- the woods and springs of the valley, the setting of tales of nocturnal gatherings.
It is important to distinguish: the places of legend are part of collective memory, while the trials are a documented historical fact. The two dimensions intertwine, but they do not coincide.
Why witch-hunts targeted women
Triora shares certain recurring features with the great European persecutions. The accused were mostly women, often known in the village for their skills in care, as midwives or as experts in household remedies. In a world where illness and death were also explained in moral terms, those who had knowledge of the body could easily become suspect.
Added to this were family tensions, rivalries between neighbours and the fear generated by hunger. The witch became the point where very different anxieties converged: a figure onto whom an evil that could not otherwise be explained was offloaded.
Memory today
Today Triora has made its history part of its identity. The village houses an ethnographic museum that also deals with witchcraft, and every year it draws visitors interested in its past. Alongside the more folkloric aspects, the village's memory invites serious reflection: the witches of Triora were not fairy-tale characters but real women, accused at a moment of collective fear.
Remembering them means recognising a mechanism that does not belong only to the past: the temptation to turn a crisis into a hunt for a culprit.
In short
- Triora, in the hinterland of Imperia, was the scene of witchcraft trials between 1587 and 1589.
- It all began with a severe famine, interpreted as the effect of evil spells.
- The Genoese commissioner Giulio Scribani led the harshest phase of the persecution.
- The intervention of the Holy Office in Rome helped halt the proceedings.
- The village's memory today distinguishes between the legend of places and documented history.
