OUTCAST - THE PERSECUTION OF HUGUENOTS

In 1685, the French king Louis XIV triggered the persecution of the Huguenots, a French protestant minority religion, with one stroke of a pen. They were mercilessly persecuted, they were killed, raped, and robbed, they were put in dungeons or they became galley slaves.

At the end of the 17th century when there is nothing left more than 200.000 Huguenots fled to the Protestant territories of Europe: to German principalities, but also to England, the Netherlands or America. It is one of the largest flight movements of the early modern period.

With their influence on the economy, science and culture, the Huguenots changed their host countries and left traces that can still be felt today.