Eerie Fog in Oria

43 views

July 14, 2008 · Filed Under Italian Legends

On the subject of ghosties and ghoulies, as I have been recently, how about mixing in a little bit of ancient Italian witchcraft?

Well, down in a little town called Oria, not to far from Taranto, an eerie fog surrounds the place on occasions. Just what caused this spooky fog?

Well, the story goes that many moons ago, Oria once went by the name of Hyrie, and this town had a big problem with its walls, in that every time they were built, they inexplicably fell down. Something had to be done.

So, just what do you do in such strange circumstances? Easy, you consult your local holy men. These erstwhile chaps stated that the only way to keep the walls from tumbling down, was to glue them together with the blood of a virgin. Obvious solution really - must have been before the advent of cement.

Anyway, such sensible advice had to be adhered to, and so the hunt for a suitable virgin began. Only the locals, whose daughters potentially qualified as the right virgins for the job, were not all too happy about submitting a loved one to be used as wall glue, so they hid them all away, as any loving parent would have done in the circumstances.

However, a lone peasant, who came out of the wood where she lived to look for firewood (Why she was unable to find wood in the wood, I have no idea…). While mum was out picking wood, her little daughter was whisked away, sacrificed, and her blood was used to keep the city’s walls suitably stable.

Now, this poor peasant mother just happened to be quite a powerful local witch, and, not being at all happy at the loss of her little one, she cast a spell on the town of Hyrie, now Oria. The words to this spell were: “Possa tu Oria fumare nei secoli come fuma ora il mio cuore” - “May Oria smoke through the centuries as my heart is smoking now.”

And so it was that the town of Oria was often surrounded by a mysterious fog which suddenly rose from the ground. As far as I know, this witch’s curse persists until this very day, fog and all.

If you find yourself in Oria this summer, and a fog suddenly envelops the town, you can impress your travelling companions by telling them this little story. Click here to see where this place is: Oria.

Please write and tell me if you do find yourself in this place, especially if it becomes foggy all of a sudden.

By the way, Oria is in a very beautiful area of Italy known as Salento, which is part of Apulia. Read the Southern Italy article on Italylogue to find out why the South of Italy is a fascinating place to visit.

Here’s a little YouTube photo slide show to whet your appetite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jrfGt-uWqQ

With thanks to Gaetano Salvo who pointed me in the direction of this little story.

Share:

Tags: curse, fog, Italian, Italy, Oria, place, spell, witches

Comments

One Response to “Eerie Fog in Oria”

Pages tagged "yuletide" on July 23rd, 2008 12:22 pm

[...] bookmarks tagged yuletideBuy quality pine - oak - bookcases from konteaki furniture Eerie Fog in Oria saved by 11 others himahu bookmarked on 07/23/08 | [...]

Leave a Reply