The Faces of Belmez

In the small village on Belmez, Spain, on August 23, 1971, Maria Gõmez Pereira noticed an odd image on her kitchen floor that she hadn't noticed before. It was a human face. A neighbor destroyed the floor with a pickaxe and put down new cement, but one week later the face returned in the same spot.

Word soon spread about the paranormal face which was cut out of the floor and preserved.  After taking the face out, investigators dug under the kitchen floor and unearthed headless skeletons and piles of human bones.

A new floor was put down. Two weeks later, another male face appeared and then, a few weeks later, a female face appeared.  Many more faces formed, some quickly and then disappearing just as quickly - sometimes in a single day. Over time, the expressions appeared to change and get older.  Investigators made tape recordings while the house was empty and locked. When they were played back, the tapes contained sounds of human wailing, whispering and crying.  The kitchen floor was covered in a sheet of plastic and the kitchen itself was sealed up for three months.  When the floor was finally uncovered, the investigators were shocked to discover that not only did the faces continue to evolve, they also appeared to have moved around on the floor.

Maria Gõmez Pereira passed away on the morning of 3rd February 2004.  Investigators returned to the house only to discover that the faces had continued to appear, disappear, and evolve even after Pereira's death.

On July 2004, the house with its evolving faces was placed on the market. Its future and its owner are not yet known.