Liz Hess' painting of the Emmental area in Switzerland looks deceptively idyllic: Green pastures, snow-capped mountains, a church spire, grazing cows, gentle farms and a winding pathway.

It's only the informed observer who will understand the darker significance of Trachselwald Castle at the foot of the Die Furgge mountain in the painting.

Trachselwald Castle is where Anabaptist leaders were imprisoned, tortured and sometimes killed from the 1500s until the 1700s because they opposed the Reformed Church's teaching requiring infant baptism. Anabaptists also refused to participate in war or take oaths, said Sam Wenger, local historian, Anabaptist and Swiss travel author.

Many Anabaptists, who believed Christians should be baptized as adults, escaped over the Jura Mountains into Germany to avoid persecution.

Eventually, many of those families responded to William Penn's invitation to emigrate to Pennsylvania — where they eventually spread to Lancaster County.

Liz Hess' ancestors were among them, coming with Hans Herr in 1711. Now, almost 300 years later, Hess and her painting, "Die Furgge in Emmental," are going back to Switzerland, where the dark history of the Anabaptists is being recognized nationally.

Switzerland declared 2007 to be Anabaptist Year, "Tauferjähr," and is marking it with various cultural and historical events. Hess's painting will be sold, and she will set up an art exhibit of her paintings during the opening festival  July 26 to 29 at Emmental.

Though it seems odd that a country and the reformed church would cooperate to expose a violent part of their past, the Swiss are very interested in this part of their history, Hess said.

Their interest can be attributed, in part, to a best-selling Swiss novel, "Die Furgge," a fictional story about an Anabaptist family who lived at the base of the mountain.

"It was the first thing that happened that brought the Anabaptist history to the attention of the Swiss people," Wenger said. Prior to the book, the history was "slipped under the rug."

The Rev. Lloyd Hoover, a bishop in Lancaster Mennonite Conference, said he believes the basis for this year's events goes deeper. It is evidence of the healing that is occurring between American Anabaptists and Swiss Reformed churches since the turn of the century.

He has participated and helped coordinate three reconciliation meetings, 2003 through 2005, between American Anabaptists — primarily Amish and Mennonites — and about 40 pastors of the Swiss Reformed Church.

"The whole (reconciliation) process has been marked by lots of tears, hugs, that have opened up the door for 2007 to become the year of the "taufer" (Anabaptist) as different cooperative efforts between the government and the church have invited Anabaptists to return to their homeland," Hoover said.

The reconciliation was initiated by a Swiss pastor compelled to acknowledge what his ancestors had done to the Anabaptists and ask present-day Anabaptist descendants to forgive him, he said.

The first meeting took place in Switzerland in 2003. Various pastors of the Reformed Church washed the feet of a group of Amish and Mennonites, including some from Lancaster County. The Biblical symbol of humility and servitude was given in return when a Swiss delegation came to New Holland in 2005, Hoover said.

Although neither group speaks for the entire Swiss Reformed denomination or American Anabaptists, the symbolic gesture has been reported throughout both churches.

Hess watched a video of one of the meetings and was moved by the people's emotions regarding their forefathers' persecution.

When she heard stories about children having been ripped away from their parents or forced to watch their parents die, "that stirred something in me," Hess said.

"The Swiss pastors sat there and listened and received it," Hess said. "I was in real admiration of their humbleness.

"I am thrilled that I am given this opportunity to offer my skill in even this small way to the whole forgiveness process. … It has taken 400 years, and to be here during the era that Switzerland is asking forgiveness is huge.

"Think if Germany could do that with all of the Holocaust victims' descendants! Will it take them 400 years as well?"

The painting, which she created at Gallery 2, the studio she shares with Freiman Stoltzfus at 140 N. Prince St., will be sold and the profits donated to benefit "Tauferjähr."

It is one of several contributions by Lancaster County Mennonites to the Swiss events.

Joanne Hess-Siegrist of Bird-in-Hand coordinated the piecing of two quilt tops by women in Lancaster County. The quilt tops were sent to Switzerland, where they will be quilted during the spring and summer by Swiss women at the same dairy where Hess will exhibit.

A life-size wax figure display at the dairy will be dressed in clothing previously worn by Lancaster County Amish.

"This area — they love all this Amish stuff," said Hess, who in her earlier work painted quilts and buggies.

"We are excited to welcome guests from the U.S.A, especially Amish and Mennonites who are looking for their ancestors' tracks," wrote Stefan von Wartburg, a Swiss Reformed minister who lived in Lancaster County during the summer of 2005.

"Though the main focus is a 'touristical' one," he wrote, "this does not mean that the spiritual issue will be faded out … the spiritual issues will be between the lines."

E-mail: lespenshade@lnpnews.com