The Gothenburg Witch Trials: Sweden's Darkest Chapter

In 1668, in the Swedish port city of Gothenburg, a twelve-year-old boy named Gertrude Svensson accused a local woman of stealing his breath. Within months, the accusations spread like fire through a dry timber yard. By the time the frenzy burned out, over a hundred people — mostly women, but also men and children — had been arrested, tortured, and tried. Twenty-two were executed at the stake. This episode of Fexingo History plunges into the Gothenburg witch trials, one of the most documented and chilling episodes of Sweden's stormaktstiden era. We follow the fever dream from its spark in a child's bedroom to the town hall hearings, the role of the clergyman Petrus Boberg, who wrote a bestselling account, and the terrifying mechanics of the water test. We ask why this happened in a Lutheran, literate kingdom that prided itself on order — and why it stopped as suddenly as it began. The answer lies in a shift in legal thinking, a royal decree, and a rare voice of reason in the Swedish king's council. A story about fear, belief, and the fragile line between justice and hysteria.

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