WEBVTT - The House That Watched Back 0:00:05.921 --> 0:00:20.000 Approache production. Welcome to Silent Secrets, where each night we 0:00:20.121 --> 0:00:28.161 explore a real mystery, softly told to help you fall asleep. Tonight, 0:00:28.321 --> 0:00:32.281 we journey to a small village in Spain with something 0:00:32.361 --> 0:00:37.241 unusual began appearing in a family's kitchen, not in the 0:00:37.241 --> 0:00:46.641 cupboards or on the walls, but in the floor itself. Faces, 0:00:48.361 --> 0:00:56.961 dozens of them, some smiling, some screaming, some so vivid 0:00:58.121 --> 0:01:04.201 they looked alive. This is the true story of the 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:10.481 Belmies Face, a mystery that's puzzled skeptics and believers for decades. 0:01:13.041 --> 0:01:18.840 So settle in, take a deep breath, let your mine 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.761 drift off to a quiet town in Spain, where the 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:41.200 walls and even the concrete may have something to say. 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.481 Maria Gomez, a quiet housewife in her fifties, was going 0:01:45.521 --> 0:01:49.961 about her daily routine in her modest kitchen in southern Spain. 0:01:51.881 --> 0:01:55.961 Nothing was out of the ordinary until she looked down 0:01:58.681 --> 0:02:03.401 in the concrete floor, right near the stove. A face 0:02:03.561 --> 0:02:11.201 was staring back at her. It wasn't a stain, it 0:02:11.321 --> 0:02:21.161 wasn't a smudge. It was detailed, expressive, almost human. Startled, 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:26.281 she showed her husband and son. They tried to scrub 0:02:26.281 --> 0:02:29.960 it off, thinking it was dirt or a trick of 0:02:30.001 --> 0:02:37.441 the light. But it wouldn't budge, so they did the 0:02:37.481 --> 0:02:43.560 next logical thing. They took a pick axe and destroyed 0:02:43.601 --> 0:02:49.841 that section of the floor. They poured fresh cement and 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:57.800 patched it up. But within days a new face appeared, 0:02:59.281 --> 0:03:16.481 then another, and another. Soon neighbors began visiting, then reporters, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:27.000 then scientists. Photos were taken. People claimed to see men, women, 0:03:27.761 --> 0:03:33.680 even children's faces etched into the floor. Some looked sad, 0:03:35.361 --> 0:03:45.321 others looked tormented. No one, not Maria, not her family, 0:03:46.321 --> 0:03:58.001 had any idea where the faces were coming from. The 0:03:58.041 --> 0:04:04.801 phenomenon became known as the Faces of Bellemees. It wasn't 0:04:04.881 --> 0:04:09.601 like before. Paranormal investigators began to arrive, and what they 0:04:09.681 --> 0:04:17.121 found only deepened the mystery. In the hopes of solving 0:04:17.121 --> 0:04:21.841 a riddle, local officials agreed to excavate beneath the kitchen floor. 0:04:22.721 --> 0:04:32.080 What they found shocked everyone. Human remains, including skulls, buried 0:04:32.121 --> 0:04:37.681 beneath the house. No one had any idea a gravesite 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:43.721 was under this home. The bones were exhumed and reburied 0:04:43.761 --> 0:04:49.241 in cemetery. For a moment, people hoped that it would end, 0:04:51.201 --> 0:05:00.401 but the faces kept coming, some disappeared, others changed expression. 0:05:00.641 --> 0:05:05.440 Over time, new ones appeared in other parts of their house, 0:05:06.561 --> 0:05:11.361 on the walls in the hallway. It was like the 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:26.961 house was alive or haunted. This mystery true skeptics, of course, 0:05:28.401 --> 0:05:32.520 Some claimed the faces were painted by hand, using chemicals 0:05:32.561 --> 0:05:37.761 or dies. In nineteen ninety a team of experts from 0:05:37.761 --> 0:05:43.201 the Spanish Ministry of the Interior studied the house. They 0:05:43.241 --> 0:05:47.080 sealed the kitchen for several weeks with tamperproof tape and 0:05:47.201 --> 0:05:54.081 left cameras inside. When they returned, new faces had appeared, 0:05:55.281 --> 0:06:01.361 despite no one having access. The concrete was tested. No 0:06:01.481 --> 0:06:08.960 pigments were found. The faces weren't painted, and they weren't carved. 0:06:10.961 --> 0:06:18.121 They seemed to emerge from within the material itself. Even 0:06:18.201 --> 0:06:27.561 scientists had to admit they couldn't explain it. Some suggested 0:06:27.641 --> 0:06:33.081 Maria herself might have some psychic ability, unknowingly caused by 0:06:33.081 --> 0:06:37.960 the images through a process known as thotography, which projects 0:06:38.041 --> 0:06:44.801 mental images onto physical surfaces. Others thought it was an 0:06:44.801 --> 0:06:50.640 elaborate hoax for attention. Though Maria never profited, never wrote 0:06:50.681 --> 0:07:05.761 a book, and often seemed distressed by the faces. Some 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.761 parapsychologists suggested the house was a kind of psychic hotspot 0:07:11.081 --> 0:07:14.481 where emotional energy from the past had soaked into the 0:07:14.481 --> 0:07:20.361 walls and floors. Still, no one could prove it, and 0:07:20.441 --> 0:07:30.761 the faces kept coming for decades. Maria passed away in 0:07:30.801 --> 0:07:35.001 two thousand and four, and some say the activity slowed 0:07:35.121 --> 0:07:44.121 after her death, but never really stopped. Today, the house 0:07:44.161 --> 0:07:53.041 still stands. It's now a small museum. Visitors come from 0:07:53.081 --> 0:08:00.361 around the world, standing quietly in the kitchen, staring down 0:08:00.801 --> 0:08:10.481 at the floor. Say the faces blink or move slightly. 0:08:12.921 --> 0:08:24.721 Some say they feel watched, Others just feel cold. Where 0:08:24.721 --> 0:08:30.521 they manifestations of grief, stress, or belief, or were they 0:08:30.561 --> 0:08:39.001 something even stranger, messages from beyond? Using the only canvas available, 0:08:43.721 --> 0:08:47.721 The Bellmse faces remain one of the most documented and 0:08:47.761 --> 0:08:56.041 still unexplained paranormal cases in modern history. No one has 0:08:56.121 --> 0:09:02.161 recreated them, no one has explained them, and no one, 0:09:03.081 --> 0:09:08.201 not even skeptics, can fully say how or why they appeared. 0:09:24.601 --> 0:09:28.601 As you close your eyes tonight, picture that quiet kitchen, 0:09:30.241 --> 0:09:35.281 sunlight through a curtain, a pot bubbling on the stove, 0:09:39.161 --> 0:09:51.681 and just below your feet, the hint of a face watching, waiting, wondering, 0:09:57.641 --> 0:10:03.121 as you slowly drift off a sleep, Remember some homes 0:10:03.201 --> 0:12:33.241 keep secrets in the strangest of places. Good nights. Thanks 0:12:33.241 --> 0:12:36.921 for listening to this episode and supporting this story. Independent 0:12:36.961 --> 0:12:39.561 storytelling that shapes the world is what pod shape really 0:12:39.601 --> 0:12:42.521 cares about. Right now, There's thousands of people listening to 0:12:42.561 --> 0:12:46.161 this show and our other true Crimes, and they're completely engaged. 0:12:46.401 --> 0:12:49.161 More than ten million Australians listen to podcasts each week. 0:12:49.841 --> 0:12:52.761 If you've ever thought about advertising your business in a podcast, 0:12:53.001 --> 0:12:55.001 there's a link to reach out in the show notes, 0:12:55.401 --> 0:12:58.001 or head to podshape dot com to book a free call.