Lost and found: 1935 passion play music score preserved in family archive

Photo: Jitka Cibulová Vokatá, Czech Radio

The South Bohemian town of Hořice has a long tradition of passion plays which are intertwined with the family histories of its Czech and German inhabitants. One such family helped save and preserve the first known score for the Šumava Passion Plays from 1935 and have now donated the valuable material to the Society for the Preservation of the Hořice Passion Plays.

The town of Hořice in the Šumava mountains was once the site of some of the largest Easter passion plays in Europe, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from across the Old Continent. According to the local archives the very first passion play – in which people re-enact the trial, suffering and death of Jesus Christ – took place in 1816, when a local weaver wrote a script for it with the help of the town priest and 15 locals performed it.

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Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Jitka Cibulová Vokatá, Source:Český rozhlas