The Valais witch trials consisted of a witch-hunt including a series of witch trials which took place in the Valais (today part of Switzerland) between 1428 and 1447. It can be considered as the first series of witch trials in Europe, fifty years before the phenomenon became widespread.The victims were also accused of being werewolves. The persecutions started in French-speaking lower Valais and spread to German-speaking upper Valais and to nearby valleys in what are now the Swiss and French Alps.