Anna Goeldi obtained the dubious honour of being the last Western European woman executed for witchcraft in Glaris, Switzerland in 1782.

Today the BBC featured an article on efforts being made to clear her name. Here is a snippet:

Fear and superstition fuelled witch-hunts all over Europe in the Middle Ages and caused the deaths of many innocent women. The last execution for witchcraft took place little more than 200 years ago but campaigners in Switzerland claim it may be time to clear Anna Goeldi's name.

To understand Anna Goeldi's story you need to go to where it unfolded, in the tiny Swiss canton of Glarus.

It is a long narrow valley, the mountains loom above, the villages are squeezed below into the spaces where the grey rock unwillingly makes way for earth and grass.

You get the sense, even today, that many of the world's events have passed Glarus by.

This was where Anna Goeldi arrived in 1765, looking for work as a maid.

One of the houses she worked in still exists. It is imposing, smug almost, four storeys high, with a grand doorway, and the crests of the noble Glarus families who lived there painted on its walls.

It is the first clue to Anna Goeldi's fate.

Full BBC Article Here

It is difficult to believe that this form of murder still continued long into what was considered the "Age of Enlightenment." Hopefully these efforts to set the record straight will give Anna the dignity in death that she was robbed from in life.

Image Credit & Resource on Witchcraft