In 1518, something happened in Strasbourg that centuries later remains inexplicable. Over a two month period, citizens of the city danced themselves to death. Gripped by an uncontrollable and compulsive mania to dance, the Dancing Plague began in July when a Frau Troffea stepped into the street outside her half timbered house and started a frenzied, maniacal dance. Seemingly incapable of stopping except when she collapsed from exhaustion, she kept up the dance for days.
The contagion began to spread, and soon around 30 of her neighbours had begun to dance compulsively. The local authorities had no idea what caused it or how to stop it. Using a weird logic, they decided people needed to dance whatever disease was responsible out of their system. They even hired bands and professional dancers to join in. This quickly backfired when it encouraged even more people to start dancing.
People died from heat stroke and heart attacks. By the time the mania began to slow down, 400 people had been afflicted. It sounds like fiction but is well documented. One of several similar dancing frenzies that struck Europe, it was by far the largest. At the time people believed it was caused by overheated blood or demonic possession. In later centuries the dancers were thought to have eaten bread contaminated with toxic ergot fungus, or were part of a cult.
The most likely, but by no means certain theory, is that of US historian John Waller. He believes that famine and epidemics of incurable diseases afflicting the city at that time created the perfect conditions for stress-induced mass hysteria. Something helped along by the superstition that the patron saint of dancers, St. Vitus, could curse people to dance as if possessed.
Walking through the cobbled streets of Strasbourg’s well preserved medieval Petite France district, it’s likely you are walking the same streets where Frau Troffea and her compatriots once danced. Today, they witness a more contemporary frenzy, mass tourism. Petite France is gorgeous, but by mid-morning it gets crowded. We decided to escape the dance and head to the Neustadt, known as the German Imperial Quarter.
The Neustadt was heavily damaged by artillery during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. In the aftermath of the war and German unification, the city was under German control and reconstruction transformed the district into a grandiose celebration of the German Empire. Despite being listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, today its broad avenues and eclectic mix of architectural styles are far less visited by tourists.
We crossed the canal at the Pont de la Fonderie to a square where the imposing Palais de Justice and Église Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune sit. Attractive residential streets led to the Jardin de la Place de la République, past the National Theatre and National Library, to the dramatically situated Église Saint-Paul. We followed one of the branches of the River Ill to the European Parliament and European Council.
It was too hot to explore around this area. Instead we headed to the lovely Parc de l’Orangerie with its resident population of storks, and found a shady bench from which to watch the world go by. In Strasbourg folklore, a stork nesting on your roof is good luck, which must make this the luckiest park in Europe. There are dozens of them making their very loud and distinctive clattering sound.
By the time we arrived back in Petite France the temperature was well over 30C. We decided the air conditioned Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art was a sensible option to cool down. The building is covered in street art and the collection inside dates from 1870 to the present, including a Who’s Who of European artists: Max Liebermann, Gustave Doré, Monet, Rodin, Gauguin, Käthe Kollwitz and Picasso, to name a few.
We had one more evening to wander the streets of Petite france, then we were leaving Alsace for the Jura, and the lovely town of Dole. Strasbourg though is a city that deserves another visit.
A fascinating article! I learnt about this dancing phenomenon through a historical fiction book. If you like to read pick up The Dance Tree by Kiran Millewood Hargrave. It’s a good one!
That sounds very interesting. I hadn’t heard of her before, thanks for the tip.