In which European country did the last legal execution of a witch take place
"The Execution of Justice The Execution of Justice () is a 1985 novel by the Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt. It tells the story of an attorney who is tasked to reinvestigate a man sentenced for murder. The book criticises elements of the legal system and ponders on the nature of justice. It was adapted into the 1993 film ""Justice"", directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer. Ursula Hegi reviewed the book in the ""Los Angeles Times"": ""Durrenmatt focuses more on politics than on the characters who play bizarre roles in the machinery of Swiss justice. He is highly critical of his country"
"of Europe, the practice died down later. In France the last person to be executed for witchcraft was Louis Debaraz in 1745. In Germany the last death sentence was that of Anna Schwegelin in Kempten in 1775 (although not carried out). The last known official witch-trial was the Doruchów witch trial in Poland in 1783. In 1793, two unnamed women were executed in proceedings of dubious legitimacy in Poznań, Poland. Anna Göldi was executed in Glarus, Switzerland in 1782 and Barbara Zdunk in Prussia in 1811. Both women have been identified as the last women executed for witchcraft in Europe,"
"in Perthshire, Scotland in 1715. Janet Horne was executed for witchcraft in Scotland in 1727. The final Act of 1735 led to prosecution for fraud rather than witchcraft since it was no longer believed that the individuals had actual supernatural powers or traffic with Satan. The 1735 Act continued to be used until the 1940s to prosecute individuals such as spiritualists and gypsies. The act was finally repealed in 1951. The last execution of a witch in the Dutch Republic was probably in 1613. In Denmark, this took place in 1693 with the execution of Anna Palles. In other parts"
"Anna Göldi Anna Göldi (also Anna Göldin or Anna Goeldin, 24 October 1734 – 13 June 1782) was an 18th-century Swiss woman who was the last person to be executed in Europe for witchcraft. Göldi, who was executed by decapitation, has been called the ""last witch"" in Switzerland. A native of Sennwald, Anna Göldi arrived in Glarus in 1765. When she was 31, Göldi was impregnated by a mercenary, who left Switzerland before Göldi gave birth. Göldi's baby died the first night it was born (something not uncommon due to the high infant mortality of the era). She was pilloried"
"execution for witchcraft in England took place in 1716, when Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth were hanged. Janet Horne was executed for witchcraft in Scotland in 1727. The Witchcraft Act 1735 put an end of the traditional form of witchcraft as a legal offense in Britain. Those accused under the new act were restricted to those that pretended to be able to conjure spirits (generally being the most dubious professional fortune tellers and mediums), and punishment was light. In Austria, Maria Theresa outlawed witch-burning and torture in the late 18th century (the last capital trial, that of Maria Pauer"
"Martha van Wetteren Martha van Wetteren (1646, Landegem - 23 October 1684, Belsele, Flanders) was a Flemish woman who was executed for witchcraft. She was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in the Spanish Netherlands. Martha van Wetteren was a widow, known to professionally perform sorcery for money. Several witnesses gave testimony during her trial, stating that she had made accurate predictions about the future and to have assisted them in love potions and similar tasks. She was judged guilty as charged and sentenced to executing by burning. Her execution was postponed because of her pregnancy, but performed"
"and sorcery was not, by people in general, referenced to the Devil. Most of the people accused in Finland were men, so called ""wise men"" hired to perform magic by people. From 1674 to 1678, a real witch hysteria broke out in Ostrobothnia, during which twenty women and two men were executed. The last person executed for sorcery in Finland was probably a man, Erkki Antinpoika, in 1689. The last Finnish witch trial took place in Turku, when the merchant daughter Beata Pintarintytär was accused of evil magic by twenty witnesses and sentenced to death after a body search that"
"Doruchów witch trial The Doruchów witch trial was a witch trial which took place in the village of Doruchów in Poland in the 18th century. It was the last mass trial of sorcery and witchcraft in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The trial allegedly resulted in the execution of 14 women in 1775, and led to the ban on witch burning in Poland. However, a reassessment of the original documentation places the trial in 1783, with 6 victims, and having no effect on any of the laws concerning witch burning. According to the older historians who believed the first version of the"
"occurred in 1750 in Salzburg, which was then outside the Austrian domain). In the later 18th century, witchcraft had ceased to be considered a criminal offense throughout Europe, but there are a number of cases which were not technically witch trials but are suspected to have involved belief in witches at least behind the scenes. Thus, in 1782, Anna Göldi was executed in Glarus, Switzerland, officially for the killing of her infant – a ruling at the time widely denounced throughout Switzerland and Germany as judicial murder. Like Anna Göldi, Barbara Zdunk was executed in 1811 in Prussia not technically"
"freed. After that, the Danish authorities were reluctant to accept any more charges of witchcraft. When the local court of Schelenburg condemned two women to be burned at the stake for witchcraft in 1708, the sentence was revoked by the high court. Anne Palles has been called the last ""witch"" to be executed in Denmark. She was also likely the last woman to be executed for sorcery in Denmark: however, the very last person to be legally executed for sorcery in Denmark was in fact a man, the grenadier Johan Pistorius There were death sentences for witchcraft in Denmark long"
"after she had given birth. Martha van Wetteren Martha van Wetteren (1646, Landegem - 23 October 1684, Belsele, Flanders) was a Flemish woman who was executed for witchcraft. She was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in the Spanish Netherlands. Martha van Wetteren was a widow, known to professionally perform sorcery for money. Several witnesses gave testimony during her trial, stating that she had made accurate predictions about the future and to have assisted them in love potions and similar tasks. She was judged guilty as charged and sentenced to executing by burning. Her execution was postponed because"
"lamps' significance. ""The memorial is an expression of atonement for the injustice that took place here. It will be an eternal light for Anna Göldi."" On August 20, 2017, the Anna Göldi Museum was opened in the Hänggiturm building. The life of Göldi has been the subject of a musical, with Göldi performed by Masha Karell. Anna Göldi Anna Göldi (also Anna Göldin or Anna Goeldin, 24 October 1734 – 13 June 1782) was an 18th-century Swiss woman who was the last person to be executed in Europe for witchcraft. Göldi, who was executed by decapitation, has been called the"
"Kruse was burnt and Anne Palles was decapitated and her body thrown on the stake. On the place of execution, a placet was to be put on a pike with a description of the crime. Anne Palles was the last woman to be legally executed for sorcery in Denmark, but her case was not the last Danish witch trial. The last large witch trial in Denmark was the Thisted witch trial of 1698, in which several women were sentenced to death accused of having caused fits by sorcery. After the fits were proved to be false, however, the condemned were"
"of witchcraft in the Netherlands was given their sentence in 1659, however, but was punished with pillorying rather than death. Anna Muggen Anna Jansdochter Muggen (d. 1608), was an alleged Dutch witch. She was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in the Netherlands. Anna Muggen lived in Gorinchem and was married to a man who died during the Eighty Year's War. After his death, she appears to have secluded herself from company, lived alone and often behaved aggressively with people. In April 1608, she had a row with a shoemaker, and cursed him after a disagreement of price."
"as 'Janet Horne' and they were unaware that this was a generic name. Some sources give the date of the Dornoch execution as June 1722. She is the subject of the play ""The Last Witch"" by Rona Munro, which premiered at the 2009 Edinburgh International Festival and was part of the 2018 summer season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Also, the events of the story are the subject of the song ""Am I Evil?"" by heavy metal band Diamond Head. Janet Horne Janet Horne (died 1727) was a woman accused of witchcraft from Scotland, and the last person to be executed"
"trials, however, either did not lead to death sentences, or the documentation appears to have been missing. The last confirmed execution for sorcery in Norway was that of Johanne Nilsdatter in Kvæfjord in South Troms in 1695. Brita Alvern Brita Alvern (year of death unknown) was an alleged Norwegian witch. She was accused of sorcery in 1729, in one of the last witch trials in Scandinavia. As the documentation of the trial is incomplete, it is unknown whether she was executed or not. Her trial is regarded as notable, as it illustrates the witch trials at the outbreak of a"
"Anna Muggen Anna Jansdochter Muggen (d. 1608), was an alleged Dutch witch. She was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in the Netherlands. Anna Muggen lived in Gorinchem and was married to a man who died during the Eighty Year's War. After his death, she appears to have secluded herself from company, lived alone and often behaved aggressively with people. In April 1608, she had a row with a shoemaker, and cursed him after a disagreement of price. The shoemaker reported her to the authorities for sorcery because of her curse, and she was arrested and put on"
"sorcery in Germany, but as her execution was never carried out, this is inaccurate. Similarly, she has been described as the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Europe, but this distinction belongs to Barbara Zdunk. Anna Maria Schwegelin Anna Maria Schwegelin or ""Schwägelin"" (1729–1781) was an alleged German (Bavarian) witch, long considered the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Germany. Anna Maria Schwegelin was born in poverty in the area near Kempten im Allgäu and served as a maid. In 1751, a Protestant was employed as a coachman, and converted to the Catholic faith. Schwegelin tried"
"Barbara Zdunk Barbara Zdunk (1769 – 21 August 1811) was an ethnically Polish alleged arsonist and witch who lived in the town of Rößel in East Prussia, now Reszel in Poland but, between 1772 and 1945, part of Prussia. She is considered by many to have been the last woman executed for witchcraft in Europe. This is doubtful because witchcraft was not a criminal offense in Prussia at the time. It is thus likely that she was convicted, formally at least and most probably wrongly, of arson. In 1806, a devastating fire ravaged the town of Rößel, which burnt almost"
"Helena Curtens Helena (Hellene Mechthildis) Curtens (1722 in Gerresheim – 19 August 1738 in Gerresheim) was an alleged German witch. She was one of the last people executed for sorcery in Germany and the last person executed for this crime within the Rhine area. Her case is one of the most known cases in Europe, as she was long thought to be the last person executed for this crime in Germany. Curtens was arrested after reports about observations of the ghost of a 14-year-old girl. She was exposed to torture, during which she pointed out her neighbour Agnes Olmans. Olmans"
"for witchcraft but for arson. In Poland, the Doruchów witch trial occurred in 1783 and the execution of two additional women for sorcery in 1793, tried by a legal court but with dubious legitimacy. Despite the official ending of the trials for witchcraft, there would still be occasional unofficial killings of those accused in parts of Europe, such as was seen in the cases of Anna Klemens in Denmark (1800), Krystyna Ceynowa in Poland (1836), and Dummy, the Witch of Sible Hedingham in England (1863). In France, there was sporadic violence and even murder in the 1830s, with one woman"
"Anna Schnidenwind Anna Schnidenwind (née ""Trutt""; 1688 in Wyhl – 24 April 1751 in Endingen am Kaiserstuhl), was one of the last people in Germany and in Europe confirmed to have been executed in public for witchcraft. It was for the devastating fire of Wyhl on 7 March 1751 which became the trigger of the witch trial. The fire destroyed most of the village. The 63-year-old peasant was accused of having caused arson through a Devil's pact. Schnidenwind was judged guilty and sentenced to death. She was burned on 24 April 1751 in Endingen in Breisgau, after strangulation. The region"
"Bertrand Guilladot Bertrand Guilladot or ""Guillaudot"" (died 1743) was a French priest and an alleged sorcerer. Guilladot was among the last people to be executed for witchcraft in France. He was the central figure of a witch trial that lead to the execution of several men for witchcraft in Dijon and Lyon between 1742 and 1745. The case was unusual, as witch trials, though still legal, had diminished in France since the Affair of the Poisons in 1680, and the execution of an alleged male sorcerer in Bordeaux in 1718 has traditionally been referred to as the last. However, a"
"Margarida Tafanera, Eulalia Totxa, Joana Sabina, Guillermo ""Miramunda"" Font and Miquela ""Esclopera"" Casanovas were executed in Terrassa. Spain had relatively few witch trials compared to other areas in Europe, since the Spanish Inquisition had issued mild guidelines in cases of witchcraft after the Navarre witch trials (1525-26), and the Terrassa witch trials took place during the period of the most intense witch panic, in 1618-1622, after which the witch trials in Spain nearly disappeared. In 2015, a found footage film entitled ""The Last Witch"" showcased three filmmakers tracking down the story of Joana Toy, a sixth accused woman who disappeared"
"a peninsula of the Tisza, called Boszorkánysziget (Island of Witches). Witch trials had occurred in Hungary since the 16th century, but did not reach any high level until the 1710s and 1720s, when the real panic arrived. In 1756, Queen Maria Theresa ordered that all cases of witchcraft must be confirmed by the high court, which more or less ended the witch trials; the last person in Hungary was executed for witchcraft in 1777. Szeged witch trials The Szeged witch trials, which took place in the city of Szeged in Hungary in 1728–1729, was perhaps the largest witch-hunt in Hungary."
"Europe and in the American Colonies. In the Nordic countries, the late 17th century saw the peak of the trials in a number of areas: the Torsåker witch trials of Sweden (1674), where 71 people were executed for witchcraft in a single day, the peak of witch hunting in Swedish Finland, and the Salzburg witch trials in Austria (where 139 people were executed from 1675–1690). The 1692 Salem witch trials were a brief outburst of witch-phobia in the New World while the practice was waning in Europe. In the 1690s Winifred King Benham and her daughter Winifred were thrice tried"
"in 1749 and the farmer Anna Schnidenwind, ""née"" Trutt in 1688, was executed in Endingen am Kaiserstuhl 24 April 1751 convicted of having caused the great fire of Wyhls by a pact with Satan. The very last execution for sorcery in Germany likely occurred in Landshut in 1756. Anna Maria Schwegelin was sentenced to death for sorcery in 1775, but she died in prison and was never executed. Helena Curtens Helena (Hellene Mechthildis) Curtens (1722 in Gerresheim – 19 August 1738 in Gerresheim) was an alleged German witch. She was one of the last people executed for sorcery in Germany"
"used, and in September 1750, she confessed her guilt. She was sentenced to death and decapitated and burned on October 6, 1750. Statement of regret of archbishop Dr. Alois Kothgasser, Salzburg, regarding the judicial murder of Maria Pauer, June 18, 2009 (in German) Maria Pauer Maria Pauer (October 1734/36 – 1750 in Salzburg), was an alleged Austrian witch. She was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Austria. Maria Pauer was a maid in the St. Catherine suburb in Mühldorf. In January 1749, she had run an errand for her employer to another house, and afterwards, the house"
"the law of witchcraft remained until it was abolished in 1779. Anna Eriksdotter Anna Eriksdotter or Anna Ersdotter (1624 – 15 June 1704), called ""Sotpackan"" (English: soot-witch), was a Swedish woman accused of being a witch. She was the last person executed for sorcery in Sweden. Anna Eriksdotter was widely rumored to be a witch for decades before she was put on trial. She was originally from Bollnäs and moved to the village of Skomakarbacken, Lista with her husband, who was a soldier, in about 1680. Her claimed ability to heal blood-wounds and her unusual good hand with animals gave"
"confessed. She was found guilty of sorcery and sentenced to be burned alive at the stake. This sentence was carried out on 25 July 1605. The last witch trial in the Netherlands was the Roermond witch trial in the city of Roermond, where 64 people were burned to death for sorcery in 1613. Mechteld ten Ham Mechteld ten Ham (died 25 July 1605) was an alleged Dutch witch in the city of 's-Heerenberg in the Netherlands. The witch trial which condemned Mechteld took place during a period of hardship for the city, which had suffered under plundering from Spanish troops"
"and Württemberg in 1809. In Spain, the Napoleonic conquest put an end to torture in 1808. Norway abolished it in 1819 and Portugal in 1826. The last European jurisdictions to abolish legal torture were Portugal (1828) and the canton of Glarus in Switzerland (1851). Tortures included the chevalet, in which an accused witch sat on a pointed metal horse with weights strung from her feet. Sexual humiliation torture included forced sitting on red-hot stools. Gresillons, also called pennywinkis in Scotland, or pilliwinks, crushed the tips of fingers and toes in a vise-like device. The Spanish Boot, or ""leg-screw"", used mostly"
"in 1544, she was arrested and sentenced to death, but it is unknown if the sentence was executed. The Põlula witch trials is significant as the first witch trial in the Baltics with more than one execution, and alongside the Paide witch trials in 1615 (where nine people where executed), it remained one of the largest witch trials in the region, where witch trials commonly only resulted in one or two executions at the same occasion and almost never more than four. In the Baltic countries, witch trials conducted in the private courts of the landowners where to become common,"
"participated in the black sabbath and consorted with the Devil. When the torture ended, she retracted her confession. When the torture was applied again, she confessed a second time. She was judged guilty as charged and sentenced to be executed by burning. The execution was performed in Brześć Kujawski. Zofia Marchewka Zofia Marchewka (died 1771), was a Polish alleged witch. Her case was a late case of a witch trial, particularly as it resulted in an execution, and one of the last in Poland. It also illustrates the use of torture in witch trials and the process of confessions by"