Film Evening | Caspar Vogl – The Last Warden of Kaprun

As part of the regional project Bauernkrieg in Salzburg 1525/1526, the Kaprun Museum shows a live recording of the historical play Caspar Vogl – The Last Warden of Kaprun from 2006. For thirty years Caspar Vogl served as warden at Burg Kaprun under the Salzburg prince-archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau – loyal, conscientious and committed to the welfare of his community. After the great Peasants War of 1525/26, during which Burg Kaprun itself was occupied by insurgents, the archbishops administration grew increasingly suspicious of the Pinzgau farmers. When Wolf Dietrich ordered a new survey and valuation of all estates in 1603 to raise taxes, resistance flared up again – and Caspar Vogl was caught between the fronts: because he had known of a petition by rebellious farmers but had not reported it, he was sentenced to death after months of imprisonment and torture. On 8 November 1606 he was beheaded in Salzburg together with two farmers – a verdict already seen by his contemporaries as a miscarriage of justice, and one still remembered in the region today. For the 1075th anniversary of Kaprun's first documented mention, castle custodian Hans Waltl brought this dramatic story back to the stage in 2006 as a three-act historical play, based on thorough research in the Salzburg regional archive. Directed by Gerard Es, exclusively Kaprun amateur actors brought the fate of the last warden of Burg Kaprun to life in the castle courtyard, supported by numerous Kaprun clubs, businesses and volunteers. The series of performances between July and September reached its fitting conclusion on the very anniversary of Caspar Vogl's death, 8 November 2006 – after which the play was awarded the Ferdinand Eberherr Theatre Prize of the Salzburger Nachrichten. This historic recording now makes the impressive historical play accessible again, bringing the moving story of power, loyalty and a tragic miscarriage of justice in the 17th-century Pinzgau vividly back to life.