TLDR: despite the stupidity of the entire theme of this town, the actual architecture and being in sunny Spain still are a plus over visiting many other places in the world, thus 4*s. Soportújar is accessed after winding through some mountains with small citrus farms and other rural enterprises. You pass Orgiva ("hippy town") on the way to Soportújar ("witches town"). There is really only one road in and out, so these places are versed in tourists, meaning yes, this is an overpriced tourist trap with very little cultural substance. There are many whitewashed villages in the Granada and Malaga regions of Andalusia. So many of them have won "Most Beautiful Village in Spain" awards that the term is now a happy joke. They are all quite beautiful, but what differentiates one from another? And apart from wandering the old Moorish streets, what is there to do? Especially when you've visited a few of them? Many pueblos blancos have begun drawing distinctions based on a facet of their history or a local site of interest. For Soportújar, they've made it a sunny version of Salem, MA, billing themselves the witches town! Soportujar became a town in the 13thC under the Moorish rulers in Spain. In the 16thC, after the Moors had left, King Felipe Il led people known as healers and psychics to live in Soportújar, so this is where they extract their nugget of truth to create the theme existing today. To make this a "witches town" Soportújar village has littered itself with themed fiberglass molds such as one finds at amusement parks. The molds are of witchy things taken from folklore, such as Hansel and Gretel's house, a snake, a spider, the face of a stereotypical witch character, a dragon, etc. The ironwork railings have witch emblems or say "Soportújar" and all the public trash cans are cauldrons. Randomly, amidst it all, there is a blue Buddha statue. Of all the amusement park type "stuff" there is to see, there isn't any connection between it and the town, nor events of town history. We didn't stay long nor invest more than snapping a picture of anything because that's all there was to it. There are many overpriced restaurants packed with tourists; and shops of "witch" paraphernalia. The positives were getting a lot of steps/flights for exercise, looking at the old buildings and architecture (however overshadowed by the facade of themetown), and the gorgeous weather! Having done a grad school paper on the Malleus Maleficarum--and its role as fantastical misogyny used to define what a "witch" is as a means to weaponize conformity to "other" females, especially independent, intelligent, sex-positive ones--I am not really into the silly Halloween notions of this same fantasy now taught to children. The notion of a witch is contemporary people trying to embody stereotypes created by sexually repressed old men coming up with propaganda to control people with fear, and yet the ignorance lives on! I don't find sport in the history of suffering imposed on any segment of the population. I wouldn't happily visit Salem, and I didn't intend to visit Soportújar, but the friends we were visiting in Spain wanted to go based on a recommendation from Spanish friends. So when in Spain... Soportújar has $5 paid parking lots along the road as you near the village. It appears the bigger lots (which you encounter first on your route) are the only ones but if you keep going you will pay the same price at lots much closer to the village. The road is very walkable from all lots to the village. There are a few free spaces along the street closer to the village, but it's highly unlikely you will get one. Maybe a "witch" can help you? read more

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