The 10 best urban legends of Spain

The term "urban legend" was coined by folklorist Richard Dorson in 1968 to refer to a story that was believed to be true but had never actually occurred. Sometimes the basis of the urban legend is true, but as it is passed on by word of mouth, adding new elements, generally bizarre, the result of superstition and fantasy popular.

Most urban legends have no homeland; first, because it is rarely known where exactly they originated and, second, they have different versions around the world. Despite this, it is true that some have their beginnings in a more or less specific place, as well as extending through a certain geographical area. In this article we will review several of the best-known urban legends of Spain.

10 famous urban legends of Spain

Spanish popular rumorology counts, as usual in this type of folklore, with a good dose of scary stories, but there are also many rather comical urban legends that have surely made us smile at some point. moment. We are going to briefly narrate some of the best-known Spanish urban legends.

1. The girl on the curve

We could not start this compilation of Spanish urban legends in any other way; It is probably the most popular story of the last decades. which also has versions adapted to almost all parts of the globe.

The basic elements of this legend are three: a traveler who drives his vehicle at night, a dangerous road and a girl who suddenly appears. In the Spanish case, there are several locations for this legend: the best known are the Costas del Garraf, in Catalonia (probably because it is a section narrow road where many accidents occur), but the story has also been located in Mallorca and on the Carretera de l'Arrabassada, in Barcelona.

Legend has it that a man is driving on a dangerous road one stormy night. Suddenly, she sees a girl dressed in white standing on the side of the road, all drenched by the rain. Missed by the young woman's presence, the driver stops the car and invites her to get in.

She sits in the passenger seat and barely answers the questions that the astonished man insists on asking her. At one point in the trip, when they are about to face a very sharp curve, the girl tells the man to be careful, that it is a very dangerous section. He thanks her for her interest, to which she replies: "It is my obligation to let you know, this is where I killed myself 25 years ago." Having uttered these words, the young woman in white disappears without a trace.

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2. The trunks of Brazil

This legend spread a few years ago, with such "success" that many of the people who had the “trunk of Brazil” plant in her house got rid of them, prey to the fear.

The legend told the following: a girl gave a trunk from Brazil to her mother (or to her aunt or grandmother) for her birthday (according to other versions, for her saint's day). The woman was very pleased with the present, and she proudly displayed the beautiful plant to all who wanted to see it.

One day, she observed that the trunk was moving, and that strange noises were emerging from inside the plant. Alarmed, she called the police, who ordered him to get rid of it, since what was moving inside the trunk were the young of a spider. a native of Brazil that used to lay eggs in this type of plant, and whose young, in just a few hours, grew to the size of a fist. We may think that the farms where Brazil trunks were grown did not do much business that year...

3. The graveyard bet

On this occasion, the protagonist is a very shy young woman (or a boy; again, it all depends on the version). The town is not mentioned in the legend, so it can be located in any cemetery in Spain.

One Halloween night, her classmates challenged the young woman to show her "bravery" by entering the cemetery at night.. To make it clear that she had indeed been in the cemetery, she had to leave a note on the last grave in the compound, stating the phrase "I was here." Despite the fact that the idea terrified her, the girl agreed, because she did not want to look bad in front of her friends.

So, that night, the young woman jumped over the wall and entered the cemetery. She hurried, scared to death, through the graves, until she finally reached the last tombstone in the compound. With a trembling hand, she pricked the sheet with a thumbtack to record her feat. But, when she was about to run away, her skirt got caught on something strange...

The next day, the girl had not yet returned to her house.

Strange and a little scared, her companions went to the cemetery to look for her. And what was her surprise when she discovered the corpse of the young woman on the grave... her skirt had stayed attached to the thumbtack, and she, believing that it was something supernatural that seized her, had died of sheer fear.

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4. the grateful terrorist

This urban legend has many locations, almost as many as terrorist attacks have been committed. However, the basis of the story is always the same: a woman gives alms to a man that she begs for on the street, and he, grateful for her gesture, tells her that, since she has been kind, she will repay him by warning her not to go to place X on day Y. The place and the day vary depending on the version; sometimes it's a mall; Others, public transport...

5. The girl and the dog

This chilling legend circulated in Spain for several years in the early 2000s. As usually happens in this type of story, the plot presents variables, but the protagonists are always a dog and its owner, who could be an adult, a boy or a girl.

One of the most commented versions was that of a girl who always slept with her dog next to the bed. The dog settled on the ground and, when the little girl felt afraid, it affectionately licked the arm that she extended to him.

One night, the girl heard noises and scratches, and she assumed that it was the dog that she was doing her thing. She stretched out her arm and, feeling the animal's tongue, she relaxed and fell asleep. The next day, when she woke up, the bloody corpse of the dog was found horrified, and a phrase on the wall that read: “So, who licked you last night?”.

In other versions, the girl cannot sleep because of the pattering of the rain. The dog, as always, licks her to calm her down. But when she gets up the next day and goes to the bathroom, she is shocked to discover that what she thought were raindrops was actually the blood of the dripping dog, for someone had killed it and hung it from the bathtub…

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6. Exploding Breasts

This legend is the daughter of a time when breast implants began to be all the rage. The story is always the same, although the protagonist varies depending on the country: in Spain she played the presenter and actress Ana Obregón, but in Italy the role fell to Brigitte Nielsen and, in the United States, to Pamela anderson. The story is that any of them got on a plane and, when it was flying at a considerable height, one of her breasts exploded due to the pressure.

7. The dog, the jam and Ricky Martin

Dogs are common in urban legends, but not always related to terrifying themes. Very famous is the urban legend that circulated in Spain in 1999 about the singer Ricky Martin and a fan of his; the story was so strong that the television program involved in the hoax had to deny it publicly, and even the police and the Minors' Prosecutor's Office investigated the matter which, in reality, never occurred.

But what did the legend have to raise such a stir? The plot revolves around the TV show Surprise, surprise!, which was broadcast in those years in Spain and enjoyed enormous audience success. Every day, surprises were prepared in which famous people visited their fans.

Well then; in this supposed broadcast of the program, the singer Ricky Martin would have been hiding in the closet of a girl's room to greet her as soon as she arrived. And yes, the teenager arrived; but before the singer could do anything, the young woman lay on her bed, spread jam on her private parts... and called her dog to lick. In some versions, instead of jam it is chocolate or foie gras. It seems that this legend came from the United States, but in Spain it penetrated so deeply that even today there are people who claim to have seen the scene on television...

8. The ghost of the Maternal and Child Hospital of Granada

Perhaps it is one of the few urban legends with an exact location: the Maternal and Child Hospital in the city of Granada. They say that, in 1985, a woman asked at the reception about her mother, that she had undergone surgery for a tumor. The receptionist helpfully gave her a pass and indicated which room she was in.

After a few minutes, the young woman reappeared, and asked to speak to the doctor. The receptionist sent her to the anesthetist, but after a while the young woman appeared again at the reception, insisting that she had not been treated. Intrigued, the receptionist called the anesthetist, who confirmed that the girl was above her, with her.

Very confused, the anesthetist made the young woman she was treating wait in the waiting room and locked the room. For her part, the receptionist sent the young woman who was with her back to the anesthesiologist's office. She never came. When the two opened the door of the waiting room to unravel the mystery, the other was not inside either.

So far, the story is disturbing enough. But there is still more. The next day, the anesthetist visited the woman who had undergone surgery and, in a good mood, told her that her daughter had played a good joke on them. And what was her surprise when she found out... that the young woman had died in a traffic accident two years before.

9. The ghosts of the Madrid metro

Spanish urban legends related to the subway are quite common in large cities. It happens, for example, with the Rocafort metro station in Barcelona, ​​where they say that, at night, when it is already closed, people move around and noises are heard. Another well-known case is that of the Madrid metro, the scene of this not very well-known urban legend.

A young woman boarded the last train of the day. In the car there was no one else but her and, in front of her, a woman who stared at her, accompanied by two men. The girl felt a little scared, but she tried to calm down. At her next stop, a man got on and sat next to her. Suddenly, she whispered in his ear for her not to look at the woman and for her to immediately get off with him at the next stop. The girl did so, and when asked why she had asked him that, the man confessed that he was her medium, and that the three people who sat before her were all dead.

10. The haberdashery on Pelai street (Barcelona)

This urban legend is quite old; it dates back to the 1970s and supposedly happened in Barcelona. It seems that, on Pelai street (near Plaza Catalunya), there was a famous haberdashery, where it was rumored that clients disappeared. Urban legend held that in the changing rooms there was a mechanism that meant that, when they went in to try on lingerie, the cubicle rotated completely and the woman was trapped. It seems that, later, they were destined for the harem of an Arab sheikh...

The rumor was so insistent that even the police had to intervene. Finally, it was discovered that it was just a hoax, probably launched by competing stores...