Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on earth. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow as much as a meter in a day. Some historians believe that the deadly bamboo torture was used not only by the ancient Chinese, but also by the Japanese military during World War II.
How it works?
1) Live bamboo sprouts are sharpened with a knife to make sharp "spears";
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, back or belly over a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) Bamboo grows rapidly in height, pierce into the skin of the martyr and sprout through his abdominal cavity, the person dies very long and painfully.
2. Iron Maiden
Like torture with bamboo, many researchers consider the "iron maiden" a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the defendants, after which they confessed to anything. The "iron maiden" was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.
How it works?
1) The victim is stuffed into the sarcophagus and the door is closed;
2) The spikes driven into the inner walls of the "iron maiden" are rather short and do not pierce the victim through, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, in a matter of minutes receives a confession, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to be silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never confesses to his deed, then she was locked in a sarcophagus for a long time, where she died from blood loss;
5) In some models of the “iron maiden”, spikes were provided at eye level in order to quickly poke them out.
3. Skafism
The name of this torture comes from the Greek "skafium", which means "trough". Skafism was popular in ancient Persia. During the torture, the victim, most often a prisoner of war, was devoured alive by various insects and their larvae that were not indifferent to human flesh and blood.
How it works?
1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force-fed with large amounts of milk and honey, which causes the victim to develop copious diarrhea that attracts insects.
3) A prisoner, shabby, smeared with honey, is allowed to swim in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) Insects immediately start the meal, as the main dish - the living flesh of the martyr.
4. Terrible pear 
“There is a pear - you can’t eat it,” it is said about the medieval European tool for “educating” blasphemers, liars, women who gave birth out of wedlock, and men of non-traditional orientation. Depending on the crime, the tormentor put the pear into the sinner's mouth, anus or vagina.
How it works?
1) The tool, consisting of pointed pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments, is thrust into the client's desired hole in the body;
2) The executioner slowly turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaves”-segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is opened, the completely guilty person receives internal injuries incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he had not already fallen into unconsciousness.
5. Copper bull 
The design of this death unit was developed by the ancient Greeks, or to be more precise, by the coppersmith Perill, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Falaris, who simply adored torturing and killing people in unusual ways.
Inside the copper statue, through a special door, they pushed a living person.
So
Falaris first tested the unit on its creator, the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Falaris himself was roasted in a bull.
How it works?
1) The victim is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is kindled under the belly of the bull;
3) The victim is roasted alive, like a ham in a frying pan;
4) The structure of the bull is such that the cries of the martyr come from the mouth of the statue, like a bull's roar;
5) Jewelry and amulets were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold in the bazaars and were in great demand ..
6. Torture by rats 
Rat torture was very popular in ancient China. However, we will look at the rat punishment technique developed by the leader of the 16th century Dutch Revolution, Didrik Sonoy.
How it works?
1) The naked martyr is laid on a table and tied;
2) Large, heavy cages with hungry rats are placed on the prisoner's stomach and chest. The bottom of the cells is opened with a special valve;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape from the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.
7. Cradle of Judas 
The Cradle of Judas was one of the most painful torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema - the Spanish Inquisition. The victims usually died from the infection, due to the fact that the peaked seat of the torture machine was never disinfected. The cradle of Judas, as an instrument of torture, was considered "loyal", because it did not break bones and did not tear ligaments.
How it works?
1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid pierces the anus or vagina;
3) With the help of ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) Torture continues for several hours or even days, until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.
8. Elephant trampling 
For several centuries, this execution was practiced in India and Indochina. The elephant is very easy to train and to teach him to trample the guilty victim with his huge feet is a matter of several days.
How it works?
1. The victim is tied to the floor;
2. A trained elephant is brought into the hall to crush the head of the martyr;
3. Sometimes before the "control in the head" animals squeeze the victims' arms and legs in order to amuse the audience.
9. Rack 
Probably the most famous, and unsurpassed in its kind, death machine called "rack". It was first experienced around 300 AD. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.
Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and turned into a helpless vegetable.
How it works?
1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, on which ropes were wound, holding the wrists and ankles of the victim. When the rollers rotated, the ropes stretched in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments in the hands and feet of the victim are stretched and torn, bones pop out of the joints.
3. Another version of the rack was also used, called strappado: it consisted of 2 pillars dug into the ground and connected by a crossbar. The interrogated person was tied with his hands behind his back and lifted by the rope tied to his hands. Sometimes a log or other weights were attached to his bound legs. At the same time, the hands of a person raised on a rack twisted back and often came out of their joints, so that the convict had to hang on twisted arms. They were on the rack from several minutes to an hour or more. This type of rack was used most often in Western Europe.
4. In Russia, a suspect raised on a rack was beaten with a whip on the back, and “applied to the fire”, that is, they drove burning brooms over the body.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a person hanging on a rack with red-hot tongs.
10. Paraffin in the bladder
A savage form of torture, the actual use of which has not been established.
How it works?
1. Candle paraffin was rolled out by hand into a thin sausage, which was injected through the urethra;
2. Paraffin slipped into the bladder, where it began to precipitate solid salts and other filth.
3. The victim soon developed kidney problems and died of acute kidney failure. On average, death occurred in 3-4 days.
11. Shiri (camel cap)
A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Zhuanzhuans (the union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into their slavery. They destroyed the memory of the slave with a terrible torture - by putting Shiri on the head of the victim. Usually this fate befell young guys captured in battles.
How it works?
1. First, the slaves shaved their heads, carefully scraping out every hair under the root.
2. The executioners slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, densest part.
3. Having divided the neck into pieces, it was immediately pulled in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces, like a plaster, stuck around the heads of slaves. This meant putting on wide.
4. After putting on the width, the neck of the doomed was shackled in a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form, they were taken away from crowded places so that no one would hear their heartbreaking cries, and they were thrown there in an open field, with their hands and feet tied, in the sun, without water and without food.
5. The torture lasted 5 days.
6. Only a few remained alive, and the rest died not from hunger or even from thirst, but from unbearable, inhuman torments caused by drying out, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed, squeezing the shaved head of a slave like an iron hoop. Already on the second day, the shaved hair of the martyrs began to sprout. Coarse and straight Asian hair sometimes grew into the rawhide, in most cases, finding no way out, the hair bent and again went into the scalp with its ends, causing even greater suffering. A day later, the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Zhuanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured was caught alive, it was believed that the goal was achieved. .
7. The one who was subjected to such a procedure, either died, unable to withstand the torture, or lost his memory for life, turned into a mankurt - a slave who does not remember his past.
8. The skin of one camel was enough for five or six widths.
12. Implantation of metals
A very strange means of torture-execution was used in the Middle Ages.
How it works?
1. A deep incision was made on a person’s legs, where a piece of metal (iron, lead, etc.) was placed, after which the wound was sutured.
2. Over time, the metal oxidized, poisoning the body and causing terrible pain.
3. Most often, the poor fellows tore the skin in the place where the metal was sewn up and died from blood loss.
13. Dividing a person into two parts
This terrible execution originated in Thailand. The most hardened criminals were subjected to it - mostly murderers.
How it works?
1. The accused is placed in a hoodie woven from lianas, and he is stabbed with sharp objects;
2. After that, his body is quickly cut into two parts, the upper half is immediately placed on a red-hot copper grate; this operation stops the bleeding and prolongs the life of the upper part of the person.
A small addition: This torture is described in the book of the Marquis de Sade "Justine, or the successes of vice." This is a small excerpt from a large piece of text where de Sade allegedly describes the torture of the peoples of the world. But why supposedly? According to many critics, the Marquis was very fond of lying. He had an extraordinary imagination and a couple of manias, so this torture, like some others, could be a figment of his imagination. But the field of this is not worth referring to Donatien Alphonse as Baron Munchausen. This torture, in my opinion, if it did not exist before, is quite realistic. If, of course, a person is drugged with painkillers before this (opiates, alcohol, etc.), so that he does not die before his body touches the bars.
14. Inflation with air through the anus
A terrible torture in which a person is pumped with air through the anus.
There is evidence that in Russia even Peter the Great himself sinned with this.
Most often, thieves were executed in this way.
How it works?
1. The victim was tied hand and foot.
2. Then they took cotton and stuffed the ears, nose and mouth of the poor fellow with it.
3. Furs were inserted into his anus, with the help of which a huge amount of air was pumped into a person, as a result of which he became like a balloon.
3. After that, I plugged his anus with a piece of cotton.
4. Then they opened two veins above his eyebrows, from which all the blood flowed under great pressure.
5. Sometimes a bound person was placed naked on the roof of the palace and shot with arrows until he died.
6. Prior to 1970, this method was often used in Jordanian prisons.
15. Polledro
The Neapolitan executioners lovingly called this torture "polledro" - "foal" (polledro) and were proud that it was first used in their native city. Although history did not preserve the name of its inventor, they said that he was an expert in horse breeding and came up with an unusual device to pacify his horses.
Only a few decades later, lovers of mocking people turned the horse breeder's device into a real torture machine for people.
The machine was a wooden frame, similar to a ladder, the transverse rungs of which had very sharp corners so that when a person was placed on them with his back, they crashed into the body from the back of the head to the heels. The staircase ended with a huge wooden spoon, in which, like a cap, they put their heads.
How it works?
1. Holes were drilled on both sides of the frame and in the “bonnet”, ropes were threaded into each of them. The first of them was tightened on the forehead of the tortured, the last tied the big toes. As a rule, there were thirteen ropes, but for especially stubborn ones, the number was increased.
2. With special devices, the ropes were pulled tighter and tighter - it seemed to the victims that, having crushed the muscles, they dug into the bones.
16. Dead man's bed (modern China) 
The "dead man's bed" torture is used by the Chinese Communist Party mainly on those prisoners who try to protest their illegal imprisonment through a hunger strike. In most cases, these are prisoners of conscience who went to prison for their beliefs.
How it works?
1. The hands and feet of a naked prisoner are tied to the corners of the bed, on which, instead of a mattress, there is a wooden board with a hole cut out. A bucket for excrement is placed under the hole. Often, ropes are tightly tied to the bed and the body of a person so that he cannot move at all. In this position, a person is continuously from several days to weeks.
2. In some prisons, such as Shenyang City No. 2 Prison and Jilin City Prison, the police still place a hard object under the victim's back to increase the suffering.
3. It also happens that the bed is placed vertically and for 3-4 days a person hangs, stretched by the limbs.
4. Force-feeding is added to these torments, which is carried out with the help of a tube inserted through the nose into the esophagus, into which liquid food is poured.
5. This procedure is done mainly by prisoners on the orders of the guards, and not by health workers. They do it very rudely and not professionally, often causing more serious damage to the internal organs of a person.
6. Those who have gone through this torture say that it causes displacement of the vertebrae, joints of the arms and legs, as well as numbness and blackening of the limbs, which often leads to disability.
17. Collar (Modern China) 
One of the medieval tortures used in modern Chinese prisons is the wearing of a wooden collar. It is put on a prisoner, which is why he cannot walk or stand normally.
The collar is a board from 50 to 80 cm long, from 30 to 50 cm wide and 10 - 15 cm thick. There are two holes for the legs in the middle of the collar.
The shackled victim is difficult to move, must crawl into the bed, and usually must sit or lie down, as the upright position causes pain and injury to the legs. Without assistance, a person with a collar cannot go to eat or go to the toilet. When a person gets out of bed, the collar not only presses on the legs and heels, causing pain, but its edge clings to the bed and prevents the person from returning to it. At night, the prisoner is not able to turn around, and in winter, a short blanket does not cover his legs.
An even worse form of this torture is called "crawling with a wooden collar." The guards put a collar on the man and order him to crawl on the concrete floor. If he stops, he is hit on the back with a police baton. An hour later, fingers, toenails and knees bleed profusely, while the back is covered with wounds from blows.
18. Impaling 
Terrible wild execution that came from the East.
The essence of this execution was that a person was placed on his stomach, one sat on him to prevent him from moving, the other held him by the neck. A person was inserted into the anus with a stake, which was then driven in with a mallet; then they drove a stake into the ground. The weight of the body forced the stake to go deeper and deeper, and finally it came out under the armpit or between the ribs.
19. Spanish water torture 
In order to best perform the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the varieties of the rack or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's hands and feet were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner went to work in one of several ways. One of these methods was that the victim was forced to swallow a large amount of water with a funnel, then beaten on the inflated and arched stomach. Another form involved placing a rag tube down the victim's throat, through which water was slowly poured in, causing the victim to bloat and suffocate. If that wasn't enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then reinserted and the process repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on the table for hours under a jet of icy water. It is interesting to note that this kind of torment was regarded as light, and confessions obtained in this way were accepted by the court as voluntary and given to the defendants without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to knock out confessions from heretics and witches.
20. Chinese water torture
The person was seated in a very cold room, they tied him so that he could not move his head, and in complete darkness cold water was very slowly dripping on his forehead. After a few days, the person froze or went crazy.
21. Spanish chair 
This instrument of torture was widely used by the executioners of the Spanish Inquisition and was a chair made of iron, on which the prisoner was seated, and his legs were enclosed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he was in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly roast, and in order to prolong the suffering of the poor fellow, the legs were poured with oil from time to time.
Another version of the Spanish chair was also often used, which was a metal throne, to which the victim was tied and a fire was made under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The well-known poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such an armchair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.
22. GRIDIRON (Grate for torture by fire) 
Torture of Saint Lawrence on the gridiron.
This type of torture is often mentioned in the lives of saints - real and fictional, but there is no evidence that the gridiron "survived" until the Middle Ages and had at least little circulation in Europe. It is usually described as a simple metal grate, 6 feet long and two and a half wide, set horizontally on legs so that a fire can be built under it.
Sometimes the gridiron was made in the form of a rack in order to be able to resort to combined torture.
Saint Lawrence was martyred on a similar grid.
This torture was rarely resorted to. Firstly, it was easy enough to kill the interrogated person, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.
23. Pectoral 
Pectoral in ancient times was called a breast adornment for women in the form of a pair of carved gold or silver bowls, often strewn with precious stones. It was worn like a modern bra and fastened with chains.
By a mocking analogy with this decoration, the savage instrument of torture used by the Venetian Inquisition was named.
In 1885, the pectoral was red-hot and, taking it with tongs, put it on the chest of the tortured woman and held until she confessed. If the accused persisted, the executioners heated up the pectoral, cooled by the living body again, and continued the interrogation.
Very often, after this barbaric torture, charred, torn holes remained in place of the woman's breasts.
24. Tickle Torture 
This seemingly harmless influence was a terrible torture. With prolonged tickling, a person’s nerve conduction increased so much that even the lightest touch caused at first twitching, laughter, and then turned into terrible pain. If such torture was continued for a long time, then after a while spasms of the respiratory muscles arose and, in the end, the tortured person died from suffocation.
In the simplest version of torture, sensitive places were tickled by the interrogated either simply with hands or with hairbrushes and brushes. Rigid bird feathers were popular. Usually tickled under the armpits, heels, nipples, inguinal folds, genitals, women also under the breasts.
In addition, torture was often used with the use of animals that licked some tasty substance from the heels of the interrogated. A goat was often used, because its very hard tongue, adapted for eating herbs, caused very strong irritation.
There was also a form of beetle tickling, most common in India. With her, a small bug was planted on the head of the penis of a man or on the nipple of a woman and covered with half a nut shell. After some time, the tickling caused by the movement of the legs of an insect over a living body became so unbearable that the interrogated person confessed to anything.
25. Crocodile 
These tubular metal tongs "Crocodile" were red-hot and used to tear the penis of the tortured. At first, with a few caressing movements (often performed by women), or with a tight bandage, they achieved a stable hard erection and then the torture began.
26. Serrated crusher 
These serrated iron tongs slowly crushed the testicles of the interrogated.
Something similar was widely used in Stalinist and fascist prisons.
27. A terrible tradition. 
Actually, this is not torture, but an African rite, but, in my opinion, it is very cruel. Girls from 3-6 years old without anesthesia were simply scraped out the external genitalia.
Thus, the girl did not lose the ability to have children, but was forever deprived of the opportunity to experience sexual desire and pleasure. This rite is done “for the good” of women so that they will never be tempted to cheat on their husband
28. Blood Eagle 
One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, the ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. In Scandinavian legends, it is stated that during such an execution, salt was sprinkled on the wounds of the victim.
Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses convicted of treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend. 
Mankind has always tried to punish criminals in such a way that other people would remember it and, under fear of a harsh death, they would not repeat such actions. To quickly deprive the convict, who could easily turn out to be innocent, life was not enough then, and therefore they came up with various painful executions. This post will introduce you to similar methods of execution.
Garrote - execution by strangulation or a broken Adam's apple. The executioner twisted the thread as tightly as he could. Some varieties of garrote were equipped with spikes or a bolt that broke the spinal cord. Such an execution was widespread in Spain, and in 1978 it was outlawed. Officially, the garrote was used for the last time in 1990 in Andorra, however, according to some reports, it is still used in India.
Skafism is a cruel method of execution invented in Persia. The man was placed between two boats or hollowed-out tree trunks stacked on top of each other so that his head and limbs remained outside. He was fed only honey and milk, which caused severe diarrhea. They also smeared the body with honey in order to attract insects. After a while, the poor fellow was allowed into a pond with stagnant water, where there were already a huge number of insects, worms and other creatures. All of them slowly ate his flesh and left the larvae in the wounds. There is also a version that honey attracted only stinging insects. In any case, the person was doomed to long agony, lasting several days and even weeks.
The Assyrians used flaying for torture and execution. Like a captured animal, a man was skinned. Some or all of the skin could be torn off.
Ling chi was used in China from the 7th century until 1905. This method involved death by cuts. The victim was tied to poles and stripped of some parts of the flesh. The number of cuts could be very different. They could make several small cuts, cut off part of the skin somewhere, or even deprive the victim of limbs. The number of cuts was determined by the court. Opium was sometimes given to convicts. All this took place in a crowded place, and even after death, the bodies of the dead were left for a while in full view of everyone.
Wheeling was used in ancient Rome, and in the Middle Ages it began to be used in Europe. By the New Age, wheeling had become widespread in Denmark, Germany, France, Romania, Russia (legislatively approved under Peter I), the USA and other states. A person was tied to the wheel with already broken large bones or still intact, after which they broke them with a crowbar or clubs. A still-living person was left to die of dehydration or shock, whichever came first.
The copper bull is the favorite instrument of execution of Falarides, the tyrant of Agrigent, who ruled in the second half of the 6th century BC. e. The person sentenced to death was placed inside a life-sized hollow copper statue of a bull. A fire was lit under the bull. It was impossible to get out of the statue, and the observers could watch the smoke coming out of the nostrils and hear the screams of the dying.
Evisceration was used in Japan. The convict was removed part or all of the internal organs. The heart and lungs were cut out last to prolong the suffering of the victim. Sometimes evisceration served as a method of ritual suicide.
Boiling began to be used about 3000 years ago. Used it in Europe and Russia, as well as some Asian countries. A person sentenced to death was placed in a cauldron that could be filled not only with water, but also with fat, tar, oil, or molten lead. At the moment of immersion, the liquid could already boil, or it would boil later. The executioner could hasten the onset of death, or vice versa, prolong the torment of a person. It also happened that a boiling liquid was poured onto a person or poured into his throat.
Impaling was first used by the Assyrians, Greeks and Romans. They planted the stake in different ways and the thickness of the stake could also be different. The stake itself could be inserted either into the rectum or into the vagina if they were women, through the mouth or through a hole that was made in the genital area. Often the top of the stake was blunt to prevent the victim from dying immediately. The stake with the convict impaled on it was lifted up and those sentenced to a painful death slowly descended down it under the influence of gravity.
Hanging and quartering were used in medieval England to punish traitors and criminals who committed a particularly grave act. A person was hanged, but so that he remained alive, after which they were deprived of limbs. It could go as far as cutting off the unfortunate genitals, gouging out his eyes and cutting out his internal organs. If the person was still alive, then at the end they cut off his head. This execution continued until 1814.
In this post, we want to expand and continue this topic a bit, so we present you with the most terrible executions in the world. The faint of heart may not read.
1. This type of execution was widely used by the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, and then the Romans. With the help of the crucifixion, the most notorious criminals, rebels and slaves were executed. Death by crucifixion was considered shameful. First, the criminal was stripped naked (leaving only a loincloth), then beaten with rods, after which they were forced to carry a huge cross to the place of their execution. After that, the cross was dug into the ground on a hill and a person was lifted on the ropes, after which they were nailed to the cross. Death was long and painful. The man experienced intense thirst, pain and suffering. This is exactly what Jesus Christ suffered. And now the crucifix is a symbol of Christianity.
2. Ling-Chi or Death by a Thousand Cuts. This painful execution was invented in China during the Qing Dynasty. In this way, high-ranking officials who were convicted of corruption were most often executed. The essence of the execution lies in the fact that the offender could be sentenced to a year of torment and the executioner stretched this execution for a year. Every day, the executioner must come to the prisoner's cell and cut off a small part of the body (for example, a piece of a finger), after which he must immediately cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding and the prisoner did not die. The next day, the procedure is repeated, and so on throughout the entire period, until the convict dies. This torture can even be called the most terrible execution.
3. Wall punishment. Ancient Egyptian execution, the meaning of which was to immure the prisoner in the walls of the dungeon, where he slowly died of suffocation.
4. This device resembles a pyramid on legs. The essence of this execution is that the convict is put on this pyramid right on the tip, after which, due to the severity of his weight, the person sank lower and lower along the pyramid, and his body was simply torn and the person felt just wild pain. For greater cruelty, they even hung loads on their feet. Thanks to such an execution, a person could die from several hours to several days. Among other things, this cradle was never washed, so often people suffered from various purulent infections.
5. . It is also a very terrible and terrible execution. The victim was tied to a large wheel, after which the wheel was spinning, and the executioner struck hard blows with a hammer on the limbs, breaking them. After all the limbs were crushed to smithereens, the victim was left to slowly die on this wheel. Often people died from dehydration. Sometimes it happened that the executioner hit the vital organs, then the victim died quickly. Such blows even got their name - "Sweep of mercy."
6. A pretty metal cap was put on the victim's head, and the chin was fixed on the bottom bar. There was a large screw on the caps, which the executioner screwed into the head of the victim. It was one of the favorite tortures of the Spanish Inquisition.
7. Rib hanging. This terrible torture consisted in the fact that a hook was thrust into the side of the condemned person and hung up by the rib, in addition, his hands were tied so that he could not free himself. The man experienced terrible pain and was forced to hang until his death. Often people died in this way simply from dehydration.
8. Skafism. An ancient form of execution. A person was placed in a tree trunk and only watered to failure. The man was suffering from terrible diarrhea and all these feces accumulated constantly. And from the abundance of honey and feces, a bunch of insects flocked, which began to feed on all this and multiply right in the human skin. Death could also occur after 2 weeks if the person did not die earlier from starvation, dehydration or infection.
9. Flaying. A convicted person was skinned alive. This was done for all to see, and this was done in order to keep other residents in fear and obedience.
10. Crushing. A huge board was placed on the victim, on which a huge load (stones) was gradually placed. As a result, a person died either from lack of air or from crushing.
In antiquity and in the Middle Ages, torture was a cruel reality, and executioners' tools often became the pinnacle of engineering. We have collected 15 of the most terrible torture methods used to deal with witches, dissidents and other criminals.
Excrement bath
During the torture, known as "sitting in the bath", the condemned was placed in a wooden tub so that only the head was sticking out. After that, the executioner smeared his face with milk and honey so that flocks of flies flocked to him, which soon began to lay larvae in the body. The victim was also regularly fed, and in the end, the unfortunate one literally bathed in his excrement. After a few days, the larvae and worms began to devour the victim's body as it began to decompose alive.
copper bull
The device known as the Sicilian bull was created in ancient Greece and was a copper or brass bull with a hollow inside. On his side was a door through which the victim was placed inside. Then a fire was lit under the bull until the metal was white-hot. The screams of the victim were amplified by the iron structure and sounded like the roar of a bull.
Impalement
This punishment gained fame thanks to the famous Vlad the Impaler. The stake was sharpened, buried vertically in the ground, and then a person was placed on it. The victim, under its own weight, slid down the stake, punching the insides. Death did not come instantly, sometimes a person died for three days.
Crucifixion is one of the most famous torture methods of antiquity. This is how Jesus Christ was killed. This is a deliberately slow and painful punishment, in the course of which the convict's hands and feet were tied or nailed to a huge wooden cross. After that, he was left to hang until he died, which usually took several days.
Sprinkler
Typically, this device was filled with molten lead, tar, boiling water, or boiling oil, and then fixed so that the contents dripped onto the victim's stomach or eyes.
"Iron Maiden"
Iron cabinet with hinged front wall and internal space covered with spikes. A man was placed in a closet. Every movement brought terrible pain.
Rope as a murder weapon
The rope is the easiest of all torture devices to use and has been used in many ways. For example, it was used to tie a victim to a tree, leaving it then to be torn to pieces by animals. Also, with the help of an ordinary rope, people were hung or the limbs of the victim were tied to horses, which were allowed to gallop in different directions to tear off the limbs of the convict.
cement boots
Cement boots were invented by the American mafia to execute enemies, traitors and spies. They put their feet in a basin filled with cement. After the cement had dried, the victim was thrown alive into the river.
Guillotine
One of the most famous forms of execution, the guillotine was made from a razor-sharp blade tied to a rope. The head of the victim was fixed with blocks, after which a blade fell from above, cutting off the head. Decapitation was considered an instant and painless death.
Rack
The device, designed to dislocate every joint in the victim's body, was considered the most painful form of medieval torture. The rack was a wooden frame with ropes attached to its lower and upper parts. After the victim was tied up and placed on the platform, the executioner would turn the handle, pulling on the ropes tied to the limbs. The skin, tendons were torn, all the joints came out of the bags, and as a result, the limbs were completely torn off the body.
rat torture
One of the most sadistic methods of torture involved taking a cage with one side open, filling it with large rats, and tying the open side to the victim's body. Then the cell was heated from the opposite side. The natural instinct of rodents made them run away from the heat, and there was only one way - through the body.
Judas torture chair
The terrifying device known as the Judas Chair appeared in the Middle Ages and was used in Europe until the 1800s. The chair was covered with 500 - 1500 spikes and fitted with stiff straps to hold the victim in place. Sometimes a hearth was installed under the seat to heat it from below. Such a chair was often used to scare people into confessing something while they were looking at the tortured victim in the chair.
Sawing
First, the victim was hung upside down, and then sawn alive, starting from the crotch.
Crocodile scissors
Such iron tongs were used to deal with regicides. The tool was heated red-hot, and then they crushed the testicles of the victim and tore them off the body.
wheeling
Torture, also known as Catherine's wheel, was used to slowly kill the victim. First, the limbs of the victim were tied on the spokes of a large wooden wheel, which then slowly rotated. At the same time, the executioner simultaneously broke the limbs of the victim with an iron hammer, trying to break them in many places. After the bones were broken, the victim was left on a wheel, which was raised to a high pillar, so that birds would feed on the flesh of a still living person.
It is known that almost every castle had its own set of torture instruments in the Middle Ages. There was such a terrible collection in the castle of Count Flandry in Belgium. It’s enough to look at to make goosebumps run down your back.
In the Middle Ages, the church played a key role in politics and public life. Against the backdrop of the flourishing of architecture and scientific technology, the Inquisition and church courts persecuted dissidents and used torture. Denunciations and executions were massive. Women were especially helpless and powerless. Therefore, today we will tell you about the most terrible medieval torture for girls.
Their life was not like the fairy-tale world of chivalric novels. Girls were more often accused of witchcraft and, under torture, confessed to acts they did not commit. Sophisticated corporal punishment strikes with savagery, cruelty and inhumanity. A woman has always been guilty: for infertility and a large number of children, for an illegitimate child and various bodily defects, for healing and violation of biblical rules. Public corporal punishment was used to obtain information and intimidate the population.
The most terrible torture of women in the history of mankind
Most of the instruments of torture were mechanized. The victim experienced terrible pain and died from his injuries. The authors of all the terrible tools knew the structure of the human body quite well, each method brought unbearable suffering. Although, of course, these instruments were applied not only to females, but they suffered more than others.
Pear of suffering
The mechanism was a metal pear, divided into several segments. There was a screw in the middle of the pear. The device was inserted into the guilty woman's mouth, vaginal or anus. The screw mechanism opened the segments of the pear. As a result, internal organs were damaged: the vagina, cervix, intestines, pharynx. A very terrible death.
The injuries caused by the device were incompatible with life. Usually torture was applied to girls who were accused of being in touch with the devil. At the sight of such a tool, the defendants confessed to cohabitation with the devil, the use of the blood of babies in magical rituals. But confessions did not save the poor girls. They still died in the flames of the fire.
Witch chair (Spanish chair)
Applied to girls convicted of witchcraft. The suspect was restrained with belts and handcuffs on an iron chair, in which the seat, back, and sides were covered with spikes. The man did not die immediately from blood loss, the spikes slowly pierced the body. The cruel suffering did not end there, hot coals were placed under the chair.
History has preserved the fact that at the end of the 17th century, a woman from Austria, accused of witchcraft, spent eleven days in agony on such an armchair, but she died without confessing to the crime.
Throne
A special device for prolonged torture. The "throne" was a wooden chair with holes in the back. The legs of the woman were fixed in the holes, and the head was lowered down. An uncomfortable position caused suffering: the blood rushed to the head, the muscles of the neck and back were stretched. But there were no signs of torture on the body of the suspect.
A rather harmless weapon, reminiscent of a modern vise, delivered pain, broke bones, but did not lead to the death of the interrogated person.
Stork
The woman was placed in an iron device, which allowed her to be fixed in a position with her legs pulled to her stomach. This posture caused muscle spasms. Prolonged pain, convulsions slowly drove me crazy. Additionally, the victim could be tortured with a red-hot iron.
Shoes with spikes under the heel
Torture shoes were fixed on the leg with shackles. With the help of a special device, spikes were screwed into the heel. For some time, the victim could stand on his toes to relieve pain and prevent the spikes from penetrating deeply. But it is impossible to stand in this position for a long time. The poor sinner was in severe pain, blood loss, sepsis.
"Vigil" (insomnia torture)
For this purpose, a special chair was created with a seat in the shape of a pyramid. The girl was seated on the seat, she could not sleep or relax. But the inquisitors have found a more effective way to gain recognition. The bound suspect was seated in such a position that the top of the pyramid penetrated the vagina.
The torture lasted for hours, the unconscious woman was brought to her senses and again returned to the pyramid, which tore her body and injured her genitals. To increase the pain, heavy objects were tied to the legs of the victim, hot iron was applied.
Witch goats (Spanish donkey)
A naked sinner was seated on a wooden block of a pyramidal shape, to enhance the effect, a load was tied to her legs. The torture hurt, but unlike the previous one, it did not tear the woman's genitals.
water torture
This method of interrogation was considered humane, although it often led to the death of the suspect. A funnel was inserted into the girl's mouth, and a large amount of water was poured. Then they jumped on the unfortunate woman, which could cause a rupture of the stomach and intestines. Boiling water, molten metal could be poured through a funnel. Often, ants and other insects were launched into the mouth or vagina of the victim. Even an innocent girl confessed to any sins in order to avoid a terrible fate.
Pectoral
The torture device looks like a chest piece. Hot metal was placed on the girl's chest. After interrogation, if the suspect did not die from pain shock and did not confess to a crime against faith, charred flesh remained instead of the chest.
The device, made in the form of metal hooks, was often used to interrogate girls caught in witchcraft or manifestations of lust. Such a tool could punish a woman who cheated on her husband and gave birth out of wedlock. A very harsh measure.
Witch Bathing
The inquiry was carried out in the cold season. The sinner was seated in a special chair and tied tightly. If the woman did not repent, dipping was done until she suffocated under water or froze.
Were there tortures of women in the Middle Ages in Russia?
In medieval Russia there was no persecution of witches and heretics. Women were not subjected to such sophisticated torture, but for murders and state crimes they could be buried up to their necks in the ground, punished with a whip so that the skin was torn to shreds.
Well, that's probably enough for today. We think that now you understand how terrible medieval tortures were for girls, and now it is unlikely that any of the fair sex will want to go back to the Middle Ages to the valiant knights.
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