We are a small church in Mayrhofen, a village with a population of 4,000 and a popular tourist destination in the Ziller valley part of Austria. The religious history in this part of the Alps is rather rich. Much has happened during the last 500 years, since the time of the Reformation.
The century after the Reformation became known as the evangelical century of Austria. However, the Counter Reformation initiated by the Habsburg Monarchy and executed by the Jesuits began almost immediately after the Reformation. It fully bore its ‘fruits’ some 100 years later.
History of persecution
However, the secluded nature of the Austrian valleys enabled crypto-Protestantism to exist, that is Protestants that had a faith but hid it for fear of persecution. This was true in the Ziller valley and it was only some 180 years ago that the last of these Protestants, 437 in total, were forced out of the valley. They relocated to Erdmannsdorf, a village on the south-western border of Poland.
