The Duende del Esparto: the knocking house of Plaza del Esparto, Valencia, 1915

June 1915. An inherited house at Plaza del Esparto no. 7, between Valencia's Carmen and Mercado districts, went up for testamentary auction. On 1 June, nobody bid. On 13 June, the price dropped by 25%. On 22 June, Sr. Colmenero, a retired Guardia Civil officer, bought it against D. Mariano Roger, who owned the house next door at Calle de Caballeros 43. The new household moved into the entresuelo, the mezzanine flat. Soon after, the noises began.

"Golpes secos". Dry knocks, with vibrations that seemed to travel through the building, in walls and pillars. At first only at night, and only now and then. Then by day as well. Then more and more often.

An investigating commission put it plainly: "A las diez de la noche comenzaron los ruidos." At ten at night the noises began, louder in the light partitions than in the master walls. One account likens them to fist blows that made the walls shake, and to horses' hooves on a stable floor. The sound moved through the flat, the staircase, the entrance, the beams and the neighbouring buildings. One pillar was where it was always heard. Colmenero's 12-year-old son was woken by a knock, gripped by panic, and given antispasmodic medication.

Dozens, then hundreds of onlookers gathered every day. Las Provincias ran "La Casa de los Ruidos". El Pueblo ran "La Casa de Tócame Roque: Brujas y almas en pena". National papers followed, among them Heraldo de Madrid and Mundo Gráfico. Civil Governor Sr. Motilla, municipal judge García Mustieles, police chief Oliveras and Captain Alicart took charge. Walls were opened. Sewers were checked.

6 July. About 40 Seguridad and Vigilancia guards searched the building and surrounded the block for a night. 8 July. The square was closed to pedestrians, microphones were installed, and the sewers inspected from Calle de Salinas to Calle de Caballeros. Nothing was found. Outside, crowds shoved and protested. Stones were thrown. Boys threw firecrackers. Five police officers were hurt.

Then the knocking stopped. Most sources say it ended suddenly on 13 July 1915. There were no arrests and no published findings. Officials washed their hands of the case.

The Civil Governor named a structural cause: "dos camas, un armario que antes no lo era en una pared mediera que divide dos casas, un tabique vibrante o que debe vibrar." Two beds, a wardrobe, a party wall, a partition that vibrates.

Valencia Bonita later proposed something more human. Mariano Roger had lost the auction and owned the house next door. Perhaps he made the knocks to frighten Colmenero out and buy the house cheaply. The theory rests on the auction timeline. No source from 1915 accuses him.

In the Fallas of March 1916, the Falla Plaza Contraste turned the affair into satire. A century later, Cuarto Milenio called it "el primer expediente X español", and writers now describe it as the first documented poltergeist in Spain. The claim rests on the officials and the press who came to listen, not on any finding.