A strange historical event: how residents of Strasbourg danced themselves to death (10 photos)

In fact, we are not talking about one event, but about a whole, let’s not be afraid of this word, “epidemic”. After all, such a “dance plague” left behind almost 400 dead...





This whole story began with a certain Mrs. Troffea, who for no apparent reason started dancing



She got so excited that she danced for more than 5 days until she died on the spot.

However, before our heroine died, as many as 34 people managed to join her!





So she was not alone in her wild and strange dances.

Moreover, every day the number of those who joined the wild “fun” only grew



Almost 400 people joined within a month.

Life has stopped. All these people did not eat, did not drink, and did nothing but dance until they were completely exhausted.



Some died from fatigue, others from heart attacks



In any case, it all ended sadly.

Ultimately, the city authorities were forced to ban the use of all musical instruments. And it worked



Everything stopped as suddenly as it began.

Scientists and historians have long tried to understand what really happened, but they never came to a consensus



For the most part, researchers were inclined to believe that people were trying to relieve stress in this way, which was abundant in the 16th century in the absence of any technology and due to constant natural disasters



But there were also those who claimed that the problem was food. Possibly in bread and contaminated flour, which caused something like convulsions.

One way or another, none of these versions have yet been officially confirmed



Although similar “epidemics” were later repeated several times in other European cities.