Image | Pixabay
Ochate is located in the heart of the County of Treviño (Burgos) and fourteen kilometers from the province of Álava, surrounded by mountains. An uninhabited and abandoned population since the mid-nineteenth century in which, according to the legends, all kinds of paranormal phenomena and mysteries never solved occur that continue to cause hundreds of people to approach each year what has been named as the "cursed town ».
It is from the nineteenth century when he begins to suffer various misfortunes. In 1860 he suffered the scourge of smallpox and shortly after that of Typhus. In 1870 another epidemic struck Ochate again, this time cholera, which killed almost all of its inhabitants. In addition, it suffered from devastating fires which all together led to this town to have this peculiar fame.
Legend or reality, many visitors want to get closer to Ochate to discover what is true behind the mystery that is perceived in this place.
Accessing the town is verifying that it has been abandoned for decades. The tower of its church, two houses adjacent to it and at the top of a hill the hermitage of Burgondo are barely preserved. From there you get perfect views of Ochate and its surroundings.
Seeing the ruins of Ochate, it is fascinating to imagine what this town was like in its heyday, before all the epidemics ravaged it. What is truly intriguing about the case is that no one from the neighboring towns suffered from the diseases that killed the inhabitants of Ochate.
Theories about his disappearance
The origin and disappearance of Ochate start from the same point. No one knows for sure why Ochate disappeared but there is knowledge of his origins: this town was in the middle of the route that leads from the important municipalities of Condado, Treviño and La Puebla de Arganzón, and it was a mandatory step to reach Vitoria .
It is said that his disappearance was caused by the passage of time as a less complicated access was used from the plateau through the Port of Vitoria and the route to Vitoria moved a few kilometers and the travelers stopped passing through there. The other theory is more gloomy: disease, death and mystery.
Image | Pixabay
What happens in Ochate?
What has made Ochate attractive as a tourist destination is the sum of mystery, misfortunes and paranormal phenomena.
Many people have come to Ochate with a tape recorder to capture psychophonies or paraphonies inside the tower and in the Burgondo hermitage. They are the records of what appear to be the voices of a girl and a woman who warn the visitor to leave the place. Many of them are part of the records kept by associations dedicated to the study of this type of phenomenon.
Of course, fans of fear and mystery stories will see in Ochate a fantastic place to make a getaway to record their own recordings with psychophonies. and who knows whether to see even the ghost of some ancient inhabitant.
How to get to Ochate?
You cannot get to Ochate by car so you have to park it in Imíruri, from where the walk begins until you reach a large warehouse where we have two possibilities: go to see the necropolis by following the path on the left or go direct to Ochate on the right.
What is the best time to see Ochate?
Undoubtedly, at the end of October or the beginning of November when Halloween and the festivities of All Saints and All the Dead arrive. The perfect time to get caught up in ghost stories and other legends.