What happened
Doruchów is a village in the Wieluń land, on the border of Greater Poland and Silesia. About a kilometre away rises a hill called Witches' Hill. According to an anonymous “Eyewitness Account,” signed with the initials X.A.R. and published in 1835, in 1775 the local lady of the manor fell ill and village women were accused of casting a spell on her. Three are said to have died under torture and eleven were burned at the stake on that hill – even though since 1768 witchcraft cases were supposed to go to higher courts. The story is regarded as the last great witch trial in Poland. It is often said to have shocked the Sejm, which in 1776 banned torture and the death penalty for witchcraft. The hill still bears its sinister name.
Witnesses
The anonymous author of the “Eyewitness Account” (1835); the case was studied by historians Janusz Tazbir and Ewa Danowska.
Explanations and hypotheses
Janusz Tazbir considered the account exaggerated – the 1776 Sejm act does not mention Doruchów, and neither do newspapers or diaries of the time. However, Tazbir found a document from 1783 according to which the mayor and aldermen of Grabów nad Prosną lost their offices for sentencing six women to the stake at the request of the lord of Doruchów. Ewa Danowska, in turn, found records of a 1762 trial in Ostrzeszów: four women were accused of harming the health of the owners of Doruchów, and three were burned at the boundary of the estate. So an execution most likely did take place, but its date and the number of victims remain disputed.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.
Sources
- Relacya naocznego świadka o straceniu razem 14stu mniemanych czarownic w drugiej połowie 18go wieku (Przyjaciel Ludu, 1835/36, nr 16)
- Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III w Wilanowie – Proces o czary w Doruchowie – prawda czy mit? O nieznanym dokumencie z 1762 roku
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