Overview
A 1979 interview with Spanish witness Máximo Muñoz has renewed attention on the reported 1953 Villares del Saz landing case, an incident from Cuenca province that has remained part of Spain’s historical UFO literature. The account was documented by Dr. Antonio Bueno in an interview conducted on July 1, 1953—or, according to the accompanying notes, likely in 1979—and later prepared for researcher Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos. The material is presented as a verbatim transcription of handwritten notes rather than as an independently verified investigation.
Muñoz reportedly encountered the object when he was 11 years old near Villares del Saz. In the interview, he described the craft as belonging to beings he believed lived on the Moon. That interpretation reflects the witness’s understanding at the time, not established evidence about the object’s origin.
The Witness’s Account
According to the notes, Muñoz said three small humanoid figures emerged from the craft. He described them as approximately one meter tall, dressed in blue clothing with harnesses and boots. Although they appeared human, he said they spoke in a language resembling French or another foreign tongue that he could not understand.
The figures allegedly approached him, patted him on the face, and then returned to the craft in a single leap. Muñoz said the object departed vertically, making a sound similar either to a large bird taking flight or an electric motor running. He characterized the encounter as brief but memorable, adding that he became unwell for some time after returning home and telling his family what had happened.
Muñoz compared the craft to a large tinaja, or earthenware storage jar, with a capacity of approximately 200 arrobas. Using a cognac glass as a visual reference, he reportedly described a rounded object supported by three legs and fitted with an upper hatch. The beings, he said, moved as though weightless, “like astronauts on the Moon,” when entering and leaving the vehicle.
Reported Physical Traces
The account includes claims of physical evidence at the landing site. Muñoz said the craft’s three supports left circular impressions approximately 8 to 10 centimeters in diameter and 4 to 5 centimeters deep. He also reported small footprints shaped like human feet, but comparable in size to those of children. The notes add that a vessel of the size he described would have stood roughly three meters tall.
Three women reportedly witnessed the event while doing laundry, although Muñoz said neither he nor the women formally reported it at the time. He also recalled that three animals present during the encounter remained motionless and stared at the object, leading him to speculate that they had somehow been prevented from reacting. The notes further state that a governor, a military captain and a Guardia Civil corporal later visited the alleged landing site. The material does not provide independent statements from those officials, measurements of the traces, photographs, or surviving official records.
Broader UFO Context
The Villares del Saz case appears in a wider body of mid-20th-century reports involving close encounters, unusual lights and alleged landed objects. The source also references cases from Argentina and Mexico, including reports associated with La Plata and Bahía Blanca, as well as accounts involving spheres and purported teleportation. Such comparisons may help researchers study recurring motifs—small humanoids, unusual propulsion sounds, physical marks and claims of altered animal behavior—but they do not establish that the incidents share a common cause.
The interview is therefore best treated as a historical witness account whose evidentiary status remains unresolved. Its value lies in preserving how one participant later remembered an extraordinary event, while the absence of contemporaneous documentation and corroborated physical evidence limits what can responsibly be concluded about what occurred in Villares del Saz in 1953.
