Mas Torrent and Madness
The fog always seemed thicker around Mas Torrent, as if that place was destined to be lost in the shadows of time and oblivion. In 1714, this old farmhouse stood imposing and gloomy, with its gray stone walls covered with moss and its windows like empty eyes looking into nothingness. What we know today as Mas Torrencito was, at that time, much more than a farmhouse; it was a place of exclusion, a refuge where they locked up the unfortunates that society did not want to see: madmen, terminals, heretics and even those accused of pacts with the devil. However, it was not always a sanatorium. Before the shadows of legend enveloped it, Mas Torrent had been the abode of a man whose story still makes the skin crawl of those who dare to remember it.
His name was Joan “the Butcher”, a man born in the nearby village of Orfes, a lonely place surrounded by hills and forests. There, the church raised the illegitimate children of nobles and wealthy merchants, children considered a disgrace to their lineages. Joan was one of them. His mother, a woman of joyful life, gave him to the clergy after a fleeting affair with an oil salesman who never wanted to acknowledge him. Under the heavy hand of the nuns, Joan grew up learning the butcher’s trade. His skill with the knife was such that, upon reaching maturity, he was recognized as one of the best butchers in the region.
However, Joan never quite fit in at Orfes. There was something unsettling about him, an obsession that set him apart from the others. It was said that he could spend hours watching the animals before slaughtering them, as if he was waiting for something momentous to happen. Even the village children whispered that he talked to the cattle, that he whispered secrets to them that no one else could hear. It was then that Joan made a decision that would change her life… and the lives of everyone around her.
He left Orfes and settled in a secluded farmhouse, Mas Torrent, located on the outskirts of Vilademuls. There he found the perfect place to establish his butcher’s shop. Not only did he have the space he needed to raise his own livestock, but the remoteness offered a tranquility he seemed to crave. Over time, the farmhouse became the epicenter of his life. Joan raised cows and pigs in the spacious pastures, and his butcher shop, located in an outbuilding, began to gain fame. People from all over Catalonia came to buy his cuts of meat, considered the best in the region. But, as in Orfes, rumors soon arose.
The villagers noticed that Joan avoided any unnecessary contact. She did not participate in the village festivities or frequent the tavern. She worked late into the night, and those who lived closest to the farmhouse said that strange noises, banging, murmuring and muffled cries were often heard coming from her property. But no one dared to ask.
The Night of the Massacre
The winter of 1714 came with unusual fury. Snow blanketed the fields, and the cold seemed to seep into the bones. It was then that what the villagers would remember as the night of the Butcher occurred.
It all started with a piercing scream that broke the silence of the early morning. It came from Mas Torrent. The neighbors, fearful but curious, approached the farmhouse with torches in hand. What they found was a scene that still haunts the nightmares of their descendants.
Joan stood in the main courtyard, a butcher knife in her hand. His apron, always stained with blood, now dripped a dark liquid that the cold had frozen into thin layers of ice. All around him, the bodies of his family lay dismembered: his wife, his two young children, even some animals that seemed to have been slaughtered in the same frenzy. But that was not all. Inside the butcher shop they found something even more macabre. In a corner of the workshop, where Joan hung the meat to cure it, there were human bones. Dozens of them, clean and tidy, as if they were part of her inventory.
Joan’s madness did not stop there. According to testimonies, Joan advanced towards the villagers, knife in hand, muttering something that no one could understand. Some tried to stop him, but his strength was enormous, almost supernatural. In his outburst, he killed fifteen villagers before disappearing into the woods surrounding the farmhouse. No one saw him again.
Whispers of the Past
After the massacre, the authorities sealed Mas Torrent and turned it into a sanatorium, believing that the place was cursed and would better serve as a refuge for the region’s deranged. But rumors persisted. Some said that Joan never really left the farmhouse, that his spirit wandered the halls, seeking new victims. Others claimed that Joan’s livestock, abandoned after his escape, began to disappear little by little, as if something in the woods was taking them away.
Today, Mas Torrencito is a rural house that welcomes tourists and travelers. However, there are those who claim that, on stormy nights, the screams of that fateful night can be heard. Some have sworn to see a tall man, wearing a blood-stained apron, standing among the trees surrounding the property. And in Vilademuls, the legend of the Butcher lives on. They say that if you dare to approach the old butcher’s shop in ruins, you can hear the echo of Joan’s knives, sharpening in the darkness.
Maybe it’s just a story to scare children. Or maybe the Butcher of Vilademuls never really left his home.
From MasTorrencito we wish you a good day and that your dogs accompany you !!!!
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