Doruchów witch trial

The trial allegedly resulted in the execution of 14 women in 1775, and led to the ban on witch burning in Poland.

[1][2] 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.

[citation needed] Modern Polish historians – such as Janusz Tazbir — have, however, questioned whether the Doruchów witch trial really took place in 1775, whether it happened as described, and whether it had the claimed effect on the law.

Tazbir points out that the most detailed account of this event was given by early-19th-century writer Konstanty Majeranowski, who has been found by later historians to have authored several historical hoaxes.

Tazbir notes that the existing primary sources can prove that only six – not fourteen – women, were sentenced to death, and it is not even clear whether they were actually executed.