Witch trials in Jeseniky - exposition

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Jeseník

Free admission with ORC

You can see how cruel the reality of life was for many local inhabitants in Jeseniky in the 17th century during a visit to the exhibition of witch trials in the museum in Jesenik in the cellar of the Water Fortress.

The unfortunate period in the history of Jesenik, during which hundreds of innocent people died, is accompanied by a permanent exhibition in the reconstructed cellars of the Water Fortress in Jesenik. The Inquisition trials in the territory of the Bishopric of Wrocław, to which the Jeseníky region belonged, plagued Silesia from 1622 to 1695, and their scale is unparalleled in Central Europe. The infamous inquisitor Jindřich Boblig of Edelstadt (today's Zlaté Hora), the main figure in the witch trials in Velké Losiny, also took part in these killings.

The Gothic tower fortress stood in Jeseník in the first half of the 13th century and formed the only protection of the town without walls. In 1996, the newly established Jesenik Museum of Homeland History found its seat in the walls of the Water Fortress and a year later, a gradual reconstruction of the monument began. The exhibition of the witch trials was created in 2011. It is only after several centuries that, thanks to the opening of the Polish church archives, we can learn about the brutality with which "investigators" in the 17th century forced ordinary people and wealthy townspeople to confess their connection with the devil. The cellars of the Water Fortress will reveal the hysteria of this time in detail to the visitor, thanks to modern facilities including an audio guide in four languages, touch screens or a film about the first victim of the Inquisition in Jeseník, projected onto a wall made of so-called dry fog. Also on display are exact hand copies of important documents and replicas of contemporary torture instruments.

Highlights: The exhibit is open to visitors year-round, but tickets must be reserved for a specific day and time. The atrocities of the Inquisition tribunals are rendered very realistically, so the tour of the dungeons is not suitable for children under 13.