HIDDEN GEMS: WITH ITS exquisitely painted gabled homes and its gracious setting beside a bubbling river, the town of Oberammergau, in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, gives an initial impression of idyllic simplicity.
The celebrated passion play (below) is performed there every 10 years (the next is in 2010). This tradition dates from 1633, when villagers vowed to produce a play at Easter if spared the plague. A simple enough saga, on the face of it: suffering vanquished by the force of faith. But the passion play has become a focus of other tales in which Hitler, feminist battles, repeated accusations of anti-Semitism and intense theological debate have all played a part. A lot, one might think, for a hamlet of just 5,000 souls to digest.
The play, which follows Christ’s final days on earth, combined with flashbacks to the Old Testament, is nothing if not spectacular. It features lavish costumes, crowd scenes and a mock crucifixion so vivid it makes viewers flinch. The special effects, some of them performed exactly as they were centuries ago, are spellbinding – which is fortunate, given the hours of attention the play requires.
If you don’t get to catch the play, stroll through shops filled with an astonishing variety of local woodcarvings, ranging in theme from the religious to the pagan. An old woodcarving tradition sustains village life, and the pieces are much sought after. Visit houses adorned with the elaborate trompe l’oeil paintings of Franz Seraph Zwinck and his 18th-century school and see the later images of Hansel and Gretel that decorate the orphanage.
You might ski along the banks of the River Ammer and range as far as the gem-like Linderhof Castle of King Ludwig II, with its lavish expressions of the Bavarian monarch’s neorococo fantasies.
www.oberammergau.com
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