The open stage
The Passionstheater
A covered auditorium seating around 4,500, opening onto an uncovered stage so that the sky, the weather and the mountains behind are part of the performance.
Destinations / the Oberammergau Passion Play
a vow kept for four hundred years
The Oberammergau
Passion Play
Performed every ten years since 1634, by the villagers themselves. The next season is 2030.
In the autumn of 1633 the plague reached Oberammergau. Within thirty-three days eighty-one villagers were dead — something close to half the parish. On 28 October the survivors made a vow: if God spared them, they would perform the Passion of Our Lord every ten years for as long as the village stood.
Nobody else died. The villagers kept their word in 1634, and they have kept it ever since — through wars, occupations and a pandemic that pushed 2020 to 2022. The next season is 2030.
It is not a theatre company. More than two thousand performers, musicians and technicians take part, and every one of them must have been born in Oberammergau or lived there twenty years. Men grow their hair and beards for over a year beforehand. The play runs about five hours with a meal interval, part of it in daylight, on an open stage against the Bavarian Alps.
ProRome builds the Passion Play as a full pilgrimage rather than a ticket. Around the performance we place Altötting and the Black Madonna, Salzburg, Melk on the Danube, Mariazell in the Austrian mountains, and Munich — with daily Mass throughout.
2030
Next
Season
1634
First
Performance
2,000+
Villagers in
the Cast
~5 hrs
Running Time
With Interval
Where You Will Pray
The village, the theatre, and the week around it
Five hours, in two halves
The performance
It begins in the afternoon, breaks for a meal, and resumes into the evening — so the Crucifixion falls as the light goes. Sung tableaux from the Old Testament divide the acts.
Oberammergau
The village
Painted house facades, woodcarvers’ workshops that have supplied crucifixes to Europe for three centuries, and a population of about five thousand — half of whom are in the play.
The painted houses
Lüftlmalerei
Whole facades frescoed with scenes from Scripture and fairy tale, a Bavarian tradition the village never abandoned. The Crucifixion on the square is the one visitors photograph.
In the village, or near it
Where you stay
Many pilgrims stay in village homes — Oberammergau families have hosted play-goers for generations. Groups too large for that stay in Garmisch, Ettal or Munich and coach in.
Bavaria & Austria
The pilgrimage around it
The play is one afternoon. We build the rest: Altötting, Salzburg, Melk, Mariazell, Munich — nine or ten nights with daily Mass, so the group comes home with a pilgrimage rather than a ticket stub.
The Ground You Cover
Oberammergau, and the road around it
Click any marker to see what is there and how long groups usually stay.
Legend
- The Passion Play week
- Around it
Nowhere is off limits
The play is the anchor, not the whole journey. Groups build eight to twelve nights around it across Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia — and if there is a shrine your parish cares about, tell us and we will build the road to it.
A Sample Nine Nights
The Passion Play, and Bavaria around it
The performance is one afternoon. This is the pilgrimage we build around it — Altötting, Salzburg and Mariazell, with Oberammergau at its centre.
Day 1
Depart the United States
Overnight flight to Munich.
Day 2
Arrive in Munich
Transfer, opening Mass, and the Marienplatz in the afternoon.
Day 3
Altötting
East to the Chapel of Grace and the Black Madonna, with Mass at the shrine.
Day 4
South to Oberammergau
Through the Bavarian foothills, by way of Ettal Abbey. Evening in the village.
Day 5
The Passion Play
The performance — afternoon, a meal interval, and the second half into the evening. Nothing else is scheduled.
Day 6
Oberammergau to Salzburg
Time in the village in the morning, then across the border into Austria.
Day 7
Salzburg
The cathedral where Mozart was baptised, St. Peter’s Archabbey, and the fortress above the old town.
Day 8
Through the mountains to Mariazell
East into Styria, and evening Mass at the national shrine of Austria.
Day 9
Mariazell to Vienna
North by way of Melk Abbey and its library above the Danube.
Day 10
Vienna
Mass at the Stephansdom, the Capuchin crypt, and a closing group dinner.
Day 11
Return home
Transfer to Vienna airport, with your tour manager through to the gate.
This is a starting point, not a package. Some groups do the play with only Munich and Salzburg around it; others extend to Prague, or east into Poland. The one fixed point is the performance date.
What it costs
$3,000–$3,500
Student groups · per pilgrim, land only
$3,800–$4,500
Adult groups · per pilgrim, land only
Both ranges are all-inclusive on the ground and vary with the season you travel. Airfare is quoted separately — see the FAQ below for how that works.
- Lodging matched to your group — religious guesthouse, four-star hotel, or five-star
- Daily breakfast and most dinners
- Private motorcoach and all ground transfers
- Catholic guides throughout
- All entrance fees and site reservations
- Daily Mass arranged and reserved
- A ProRome tour manager for the full trip
Where you stay
Religious guesthouses. Oberammergau families have hosted play-goers for generations, and staying in a village home is part of the experience. Larger groups lodge in Garmisch, Ettal or Munich and coach in — which we arrange either way.
Four-star hotels. More space, more amenities, and the option most parish groups choose.
Five-star. For groups who want it, we build it — and we will tell you honestly what it adds and what it does not.
The choice is yours on every pilgrimage, and it moves the price more than any other decision.
When to go
The 2030 season runs roughly May to early October, with performances most days of the week.
Early and late season dates are easier to secure and the village is quieter. Midsummer is the hardest week to book anything.
Weather is part of it. The stage is uncovered, the auditorium is not, and the play goes ahead in rain — bring layers.
Between seasons there is no play, though the theatre can be visited and the village is worth a stop on any Bavarian pilgrimage.
What Sets Us Apart
Your guide is a missionary, not a tour guide
ProRome guides are trained missionaries with degrees from Catholic universities. They are not working from a script, and they are not reciting dates from a plaque.
The play rewards knowing what you are watching — why the tableaux from the Old Testament sit between the acts, what changed in the text after 1990 and again in 2010, and how a village of five thousand casts two thousand people. Our guides can tell you.
Common Questions
Planning an Oberammergau pilgrimage
When is the next Passion Play?
The next season is 2030. The play has been performed every ten years since 1634 — in the decadal years, with a handful of interruptions for war and, most recently, a pandemic that pushed the 2020 season to 2022. Between seasons there is no performance, though the theatre itself can be visited.
How far ahead do we need to plan?
Further than for any other pilgrimage we run. Tickets are allocated well in advance and the real constraint is lodging — Oberammergau is a village of about five thousand people receiving several thousand visitors a day through the season. Groups that want a good date and beds near the village should be talking to us years rather than months ahead.
Can you get us tickets?
Ticket and accommodation packages for the play are allocated through the village and its authorised partners, and we contract them for your group as part of the pilgrimage. Tell us your group size and preferred window and we will tell you plainly what is achievable for those dates.
How long is the performance?
About five hours, in two halves with a meal interval between them. It begins in the afternoon and finishes in the evening, so the later scenes fall as the light goes — which is deliberate. The auditorium is covered; the stage is open to the sky.
Is it in German?
Yes, and that matters less than you would expect. Every seat has a full English libretto, the staging is deliberately legible, and the story is one your group already knows. Pilgrims routinely tell us they stopped reading along after the first act.
Who performs it?
The villagers. More than two thousand people take part as actors, singers, musicians and crew, and every one must have been born in Oberammergau or lived there for twenty years. Men grow their hair and beards for more than a year beforehand — the village looks different in the run-up to a season.
What else do groups see?
The play is one afternoon, so we build a full pilgrimage around it — Altötting and the Black Madonna, Salzburg, Melk Abbey on the Danube, Mariazell in the Austrian mountains, and Munich, with daily Mass throughout. Groups regularly extend to Prague or into Poland.
How much does it cost?
Student groups typically run $3,000 to $3,500 per pilgrim and adult groups $3,800 to $4,500, land only and all-inclusive on the ground. Passion Play seasons sit at the upper end because ticket and lodging packages are priced by the village. Airfare is quoted separately.
How does airfare work?
Airlines do not release group fares until roughly eleven months before your return date, so airfare is quoted separately from the land price. That gives you two ways to launch. You can launch land-only now, start registering pilgrims at the land price, and add airfare once it opens — the usual choice when a group wants a long recruiting window. Or you can wait until the eleven-month mark, let us contract the air, and launch one all-inclusive price, which is simpler for pilgrims but shortens the time you have to fill the trip. We will tell you which fits your group when we talk.
Let’s plan your 2030 Passion Play pilgrimage
Tell us your group, your dates, and what is on your parish’s heart. We will come back with an itinerary and a price — no obligation, and no template.
Request a Custom Proposal →