Austrian village claims its Passion Play is older than Oberammergau’s

Anyone who has been unable to to get a ticket for Oberammergau this year might well go to Erl instead, for Erl has a Passion Play with a history just as long and as proud. Indeed, Erl claims to have started a year before Oberammergau.

Erl is a little Austrian village about fifty miles from Oberammergau. It lies in a valley between the Krantzhorn and Spitzstein mountains. It is much less commercialised than Oberammergau, where every shop is piled high with souvenirs. In Erl there are only the simple Tirolean houses of the villagers and a couple of inns. There are no international hotels, but it is famous for its friendliness and hospitality.

As far back as 1613 religious plays of one kind and another were staged in Erl but it was in 1633 that the first Passion Play was put on. As at Oberammergau, the play takes its origin in a vow made at the time of the Great Plague. Erl’s enthusiasm was stimulated by the interest of the Emperor Maximilian who had a hunting lodge in the district. From time to time down the centuries both secular and religious authorities took exception to a certain crudity in the script which had persisted from the earliest times, and from time to time they imposed a ban.

But neither these bans, nor those later promulgated by the Empress Maria Theresa could make the villagers give up their play and performances continued in secret in

Article source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/09/oberammergau-erl-passion-play-easter