The Middle Ages were far from the most pleasant period to live in by modern standards. Most people were poor, they suffered from disease, and their freedom belonged to wealthy landowners. And if the person who committed the crime could not pay the fine, then the likelihood that his hand would be cut off and his tongue and lips would be cut out was quite high.

Torture at that time was not as widespread a phenomenon as many people think, but God forbid, it was possible to get into a situation where the authorities wanted to force a person to confess to something! The Middle Ages are considered a golden era for torture methods and instruments that can inflict terrible pain. Today's "sanctioned" methods of torture are designed to induce psychological or emotional distress. They reduce physical pain to almost a minimum. The devices that were used in the Middle Ages were truly scary and caused unbearable pain. Warning: Descriptions of medieval torture devices are not for the faint of heart!

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The favorite pastime of Vlad the Impaler (better known as Dracula), who lived in 15th century Romania, was impaling people. He impaled his victims on a sharp and thick stake, which was brought to a vertical position, and the victim, under the influence of its own weight, was impaled deeper and deeper. Often the point of the stake would emerge from the sternum in such a way that its tip would be placed under the chin, thereby preventing further sliding. Such torture could last three days before the victim died. They say that the number of people killed in this way by Vlad ranges from 20,000-300,000 people. Moreover, they say that he loved to eat while contemplating such a spectacle.

Cradle of Judas

The torture device called the Judas Cradle was perhaps a little less sadistic than impalement, but still no less horrific. A sharp tip of a “cradle”, shaped like a pyramid, was placed near the victim’s anus or vagina. The victim was then slowly lowered onto her using ropes. Over a long period of time, the holes were stretched and the human body was slowly pierced. The victim, as a rule, was naked, which added a sense of humiliation to the torture. Sometimes additional weights were tied to the legs to increase pain and hasten death. This torture could last from several hours to a whole day.

Torture Coffin

This instrument of torture was extremely feared in the Middle Ages. It often appears in films depicting that terrible time (for example, the film Monty Python's Holy Grail). The victim was placed inside a metal cage, which was roughly shaped like the human body. Executioners could place an overweight victim in a smaller device, or even make the "coffin" slightly larger than the victim's body to make the person's positioning even more uncomfortable. The cage was often hung from a tree or gallows. Serious crimes such as heresy or blasphemy were punishable by death inside the coffin, with the caged victim exposed to the sun for birds or animals to peck or eat the flesh. Sometimes spectators threw stones and other objects at the victim.

Rack

It is considered one of the most painful instruments of torture. It consisted of a wooden frame, to which, as a rule, the victim’s hands and two more ropes were tied. If the executioner turned the handle, the ropes would pull the victim’s arms harder, and eventually the bone would dislocate with a loud crack. When the executioner continued to twist the handles even more (they often got carried away and went too far), some limbs were simply torn out of the body. In the late Middle Ages, a new version of the rack appeared. Spikes were added to it, which simply pierced the victim’s back, because she was forced to lie on the table. Thus, not only were the limbs severed, dislocated or torn off, but the spinal cord was also severely damaged. This increased not only the physical pain, but also the psychological one, because the person understood perfectly well that even if he remained alive, the ability to move would be lost forever.

Chest Ripper

Just a terrible punishment for women. Breast rippers were used to cause pain to women. They caused great blood loss and chest mutilation. Typically, such punishment was applied to women accused of performing abortions or adultery. The forceps dug into the chest, causing the woman terrible suffering. Even if the victim did not die, the terrible scars on her body remained for life, her chest was literally torn into pieces. A common version of this weapon was the “Spider” device - a similar device that was attached to the wall. The victim's chest was fixed in forceps, and the executioner pressed the woman against the wall, thus removing or mutilating the breast. It was a cruel punishment, often resulting in the death of the victim.

Pear of suffering

The brutal weapon was used to torture abortionists, liars, blasphemers and homosexuals. A pear-shaped instrument was inserted into one of the victim's orifices: the vagina for women, the anus for homosexuals, and the mouth for liars and blasphemers. The device consisted of four leaf-shaped parts that slowly separated from each other as the executioner turned a screw on the top of the device. The weapon tore the skin, widening the hole and mutilating the victim. Misery pears were lavishly decorated with various engravings to distinguish between anal, vaginal and oral pears. This torture rarely resulted in death, but was often followed by other methods of torture.

Wheel of Death

This weapon is also called the Catherine Wheel. Torture using this device always ended in the death of the victim, but it happened very slowly. The victim's limbs were tied to the spokes of a large wooden wheel. The wheel then slowly rotated, while the executioners smashed the victim's limbs with an iron hammer in many places. After the bones were broken, he remained on the wheel to die. Sometimes the wheel was placed on a high pole so that the birds could peck and eat the flesh of a still living person. This process could last up to two to three days before the person died. Sometimes the executioner could have mercy and hit the criminal in the chest and stomach. This technique is known as the De Grace coup (from French: "strike of mercy"). It caused fatal injuries that resulted in death.

Torture saw

Saws were very common torture devices because they were easily found in most homes. It was the cheapest way to torture and kill a victim who was accused of witchcraft, adultery, murder, blasphemy or even theft. The victim was turned upside down and tied by the legs so that the blood flow was directed to the brain. This ensured that the victim remained conscious for a long time, and it also reduced blood loss. Such torture could last for several hours.

Skull Crusher

A popular method of torture, especially used by the Spanish Inquisition. The chin was placed above the bottom panel, and the head was placed under the top cover. The executioner slowly turned the screw on the lid. The victim's head slowly collapsed, first destroying the teeth, jaw, and then the base of the skull. Death came slowly with excruciating pain. Some versions of this device included small containers that, in addition to everything else, squeezed out the eyeballs. This tool was an effective way to obtain confessions, since it could be stopped at any time after obtaining the necessary information.

Knee crusher

Another instrument that was popular with the Spanish Inquisition due to its versatility. The tool was equipped with sharp spikes on both sides of the handle. When the executioner turned the handle, the spikes slowly pressed against each other, mutilating and penetrating the skin and bones of the knee. Although its use rarely resulted in death, the process was very painful and the person was left disabled after such torture. It has also been used on other parts of the body, including elbows, hands and even feet. The number of spines ranged from three to twenty. Some spikes were heated in advance to increase the pain.

Guillotine

The guillotine is a mechanism for carrying out the death penalty through beheading. Execution using the guillotine is often called guillotining.

The main part of the guillotine is a heavy (40-100 kg) oblique knife (the slang name is “lamb”), which moves freely along vertical guides. The knife was raised to a height of 2-3 meters and held with a rope. The head of the person being guillotined was placed in a special recess at the base of the mechanism and secured on top with a wooden plank with a recess, after which the rope holding the knife was released, and it fell at high speed onto the victim’s neck.

Quartering

Quartering is a historical form of capital punishment that involves cutting off limbs. As the name suggests, the body of the convicted person is divided into four parts (or more). After execution, body parts are put on public display separately (sometimes distributed among four outposts, city gates, etc.). Quartering fell out of use at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries.

Wheeling

Wheeling is a common type of death penalty in ancient and medieval times. Wheeling was used back in Ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages it was common in Europe, especially in Germany and France. In Russia, this type of execution has been known since the 17th century, but wheeling began to be regularly used only under Peter I, having received legislative approval in the Military Regulations. Wheeling ceased to be used only in the 19th century.

A person sentenced to be wheeled was broken with an iron crowbar or wheel, then all the large bones of the body were broken, then he was tied to a large wheel, and the wheel was placed on a pole. The condemned person found himself face up, looking at the sky, and died this way from shock and dehydration, often for quite a long time. The suffering of the dying man was aggravated by the birds pecking at him. Sometimes, instead of a wheel, they simply used a wooden frame or a cross made of logs.

Boiling in boiling water

Boiling in liquid was a common type of death penalty in different countries of the world. In France, this execution was applied to counterfeiters. In ancient Egypt, this type of punishment was applied mainly to persons who disobeyed the pharaoh. At dawn, the pharaoh’s slaves (especially so that Ra could see the criminal) lit a huge fire, over which there was a cauldron of water (and not just water, but the dirtiest water, where waste was poured, etc.) Sometimes entire people were executed in this way. family.

Crucifixion

Those condemned to death had their hands and feet nailed to the ends of the cross or their limbs were secured with ropes. In this case, the nails were driven not into the palms, but into the wrists, since the nails driven into the palms did not hold the body on the cross; under the weight of the executed person, the nails cut through the tissue of the limbs and the executed person could fall from the cross.

The cross used was wooden, usually oblique, sometimes straight, but there were other forms. Sometimes a small ledge was attached to the center of the cross, on which the crucified person could lean. The cross was then mounted vertically for all to see. Often the crucifixion itself was preceded by a shameful procession, during which the condemned man had to carry the so-called patibulum, a wooden beam, which then served as the horizontal crossbar of the cross.
Execution was known in Babylonia and Greece, but became especially widespread in Ancient Rome, where it became the main type of painful death penalty. This is how especially dangerous criminals (rebels, traitors, murderers, etc.) were executed. In the event of the murder of the owner of the house, all slaves living in the house, regardless of gender and age, were subject to crucifixion. Participants in the Spartacus uprising were also crucified. According to Christian doctrine, Jesus Christ was crucified, which made the cross a symbol of the Christian religion. A number of Christian saints (the apostles Andrew and Peter, the martyr Cleonikos of Amasia) were also executed by crucifixion.
The main cause of death during crucifixion is asphyxia, caused by developing pulmonary edema and fatigue of the intercostal and abdominal muscles involved in the breathing process. The main support of the body in this pose is the arms, and when breathing, the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles had to lift the weight of the entire body, which led to their rapid fatigue. Also, compression of the chest by tense muscles of the shoulder girdle and chest caused stagnation of fluid in the lungs and pulmonary edema. Additional causes of death were dehydration and blood loss.
The possibility of relying on a ledge attached to the cross made breathing somewhat easier, but overall it only delayed the process of death. To speed up the execution, the convicts' legs were broken with a sword, club or ax, which deprived them of additional support.
The crucified person died long and painfully, usually within 6-72 hours. In some cases, in order to prolong the torment, water or vinegar was offered to the crucified person in a sponge.
Crucifixion as a form of death penalty still exists in Sudanese law. But before the crucifixion itself, a preliminary hanging of the condemned person is carried out, that is, an already dead body is crucified.

Burning

Burning is a type of death penalty in which the condemned person was publicly burned alive on a pre-prepared pyre.

Along with walling up and imprisonment, burning was widely used in the Middle Ages, since, according to the church, on the one hand it happened without “shedding blood,” and on the other hand, the flame was considered a means of “purification” and could save the soul. Heretics, “witches” and those guilty of sodomy were especially often subject to burning.
Juan Antonio Llorente in his book “History of the Spanish Inquisition” writes that in Spain in 1540-1700, 31,700 people were burned by the Holy Inquisition, excluding its colonies.

Buried alive

Burial alive is known as a method of capital punishment or torture, and also as a result of an accident (for example, when rubble collapses in a mine, etc.); in addition, burial alive occurs by mistake (over a person who is mistakenly believed to be dead).

As a method of capital punishment it is known in Ancient Rome; A Vestal Virgin who broke her vow of virginity was buried alive, and food and water were placed in her grave for one day. Many Christian martyrs were executed by burial alive. In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive. In Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries, women who killed their husbands were buried alive up to their necks.

The accidental burial of a person unconscious or in a lethargic sleep was quite rare, and with modern medicine in developed countries it was completely excluded, but this plot was extremely common in the culture of the 18th-20th centuries. It is constantly found in Edgar Poe. In particular, this topic is specially treated in his story “Premature Funeral”, where a hero is tragicomically depicted who was afraid of being buried alive and made himself a special crypt with a bell, and then woke up buried in the ground; Later it turns out that he was not buried, but fell asleep in the hold of a ship transporting the earth. Coffins with means of survival for those buried alive were actually produced and patented starting from the second half of the 19th century. up to now. Marina Tsvetaeva was afraid of being buried alive and stipulated this in her suicide note before committing suicide. There is a legend that N.V. Gogol died in this way.

Lynchy

Lynching (Chinese: “death by a thousand cuts”) is a particularly painful method of execution by cutting small fragments from the victim’s body over a long period of time.

It was used in China for high treason and parricide in the Middle Ages and during the Qing Dynasty until its abolition in 1905. In 1630, the prominent Ming military leader Yuan Chonghuan was subjected to this execution. The proposal to abolish it was made back in the 12th century by the poet Lu Yu.

During the Qing dynasty, lynching was performed in public places with a large crowd of onlookers for the purpose of intimidation. Surviving accounts of the execution differ in detail. The victim was usually drugged with opium, either out of mercy or to prevent him from losing consciousness.

Analysis of photographs indicates that the ceremony took no more than 20 minutes, and Western accounts of its particularly long duration are greatly exaggerated. A bribe to the executioner made it possible to reduce the duration of the procedure.

Garrotte

Garrote is a Spanish method of execution by strangulation. Initially, the garrote was a noose with a stick, with the help of which the executioner killed the victim. Over time, it transformed into a metal hoop, driven by a screw with a lever at the back. Before execution, the convict was tied to a chair or pole; a bag was placed over his head. After the sentence was carried out, the bag was removed so that spectators could see the victim's face.

Later, the garrote was improved. Thus, the Catalan garrote appeared, where the screw was equipped with a point, which, when turned, gradually screwed into the neck of the convicted person and crushed his cervical vertebrae. Contrary to popular belief, such a device was “more humane”, since the victim died faster.

Impalement

Impalement was widely used in Ancient Egypt and the Middle East; its first mentions date back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. e. Execution became especially widespread in Assyria, where impalement was a common punishment for residents of rebellious cities, therefore, for instructive purposes, scenes of this execution were often depicted on bas-reliefs. This execution was used according to Assyrian law and as a punishment for women for abortion (considered as a variant of infanticide), as well as for a number of particularly serious crimes. On Assyrian reliefs there are two options: in one of them, the condemned person was pierced with a stake through the chest, in the other, the tip of the stake entered the body from below, through the anus. Execution was widely used in the Mediterranean and the Middle East at least from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. It was also known to the Romans, although it was not particularly widespread in Ancient Rome. Middle Ages

For much of medieval history, impalement was very common in the Middle East, where it was one of the main methods of painful capital punishment.

Impalement was quite common in Byzantium, for example, Belisarius suppressed soldier rebellions by impaling the instigators.

The Romanian ruler Vlad III (Tepes - “impaler”) distinguished himself with particular cruelty. According to his instructions, the victims were impaled on a thick stake, the top of which was rounded and oiled. The stake was inserted into the anus or vagina (in the latter case, the victim died almost within a few minutes from excessive blood loss) to a depth of several tens of centimeters, then the stake was installed vertically. The victim, under the influence of the weight of his body, slowly slid down the stake, and death sometimes occurred only after a few days, since the rounded stake did not pierce the vital organs, but only went deeper into the body. In some cases, a horizontal crossbar was installed on the stake, which prevented the body from sliding too low and ensured that the stake did not reach the heart and other vital organs. In this case, death from loss of blood did not occur very soon. The usual version of execution was also very painful, and the victims writhed on the stake for several hours.

Iron Maiden

The Iron Maiden is an instrument of capital punishment or torture of the Middle Ages, which was a cabinet made of iron in the form of a woman dressed in the costume of a 16th-century townswoman. It is assumed that after placing the convict there, the cabinet was closed, and the sharp long nails with which the inner surface of the chest and arms of the “iron maiden” were seated were pierced into his body; then, after the death of the victim, the movable bottom of the cabinet was lowered, the body of the executed person was thrown into the water and carried away by its current.

Moreover, apparently, the nails inside the “iron maiden” were located in such a way that the victim did not die immediately, but after quite a long time, during which her judges had the opportunity to continue the interrogation.

According to the stories of ancient writers, a similar method of execution was first invented by the Spartan tyrant Nabis. The apparatus he invented looked like a woman sitting on a chair, and was called Apega, after the tyrant’s wife; as the condemned man approached, Apega stood up and threw both her arms over his back, studded, like her chest, with sharp nails that tore the body into pieces.

There is no reliable information about the use of the iron maiden for torture and execution. The most famous example was built in Nuremberg at the beginning of the 16th century. It has not survived to this day: in 1944, the fortress, in the basement of which this so-called “Maid of Nuremberg” was located, was destroyed as a result of an air raid. Considering the strict formalization of medieval inquisition processes and the regulation of permitted torture, it is safe to say that if the “iron maiden” was used, it was only by secular courts. However, there is an opinion that it was fabricated during the Enlightenment.

A similar “maiden” was discovered in 2003 in Iraq. It is stated that it was used to deal with opponents of Saddam Hussein.

Keeling

Keeling - in the era of sailing ships, a punishment that consisted of dragging a person using the keel ends from side to side under the bottom of the ship. Often pitching led to the death of the person being punished.

The condemned man was lifted onto the yard, lowered headfirst into the water and pulled with a rope under the keel to the other side of the ship. Keeling was carried out once, twice or three times, depending on the offense. If the criminal did not choke, then there was a great danger that he would be so cut up by the benthos that had grown on the sides of the ship that he would soon die from bleeding.

Poena cullei

Poena cullei (Latin for “execution in a sack”) is a qualified type of death penalty known to Roman criminal law. It consisted of sewing the executed person into a leather bag along with a live snake, monkey, rooster and dog, followed by drowning the bag in a pond.
It was used for the murder of relatives, primarily the father.
It was of a sacred and symbolic nature, since the criminal who was subjected to poena cullei was likened to the corresponding animals.
According to Cicero, blasphemers were subjected to the same punishment (“Whoever steals or abducts a sacred object or entrusted to the sacred guard, let him be “parricida””).
With the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire, this execution did not disappear. Thus, it was confirmed by the laws of Constantine the Great, although the latter extended this execution to child murderers.

Hanging

Hanging is a type of mechanical asphyxia that occurs when the neck is compressed by a noose tightened under the weight of the deceased’s body. Usually the loop is a ring, a knot, the free end of which is fixed motionless. Hanging is used as a method of capital punishment, murder or suicide.

In most cases, the death of a hanged person does not occur from suffocation, as many people think, but from compression of the carotid arteries that supply blood to the brain. When deprived of support, the hanged person loses consciousness within a few seconds (but if he does not lose consciousness, the excruciating agony can last longer), and after a few minutes biological death can be recorded due to irreversible damage to the cerebral cortex. Cardiac activity continues for some time after breathing has stopped. Since the second half of the 19th century, in many countries, a type of hanging has been used in the death penalty, in which the body of the convicted person is not simply deprived of support and hangs on a rope, but falls from a great height (several meters) through a hatch. In this case, death occurs not from asphyxia in a few minutes, but from rupture of the cervical vertebrae and spinal cord almost instantly. With such hanging, it is necessary to calculate the length of the rope depending on the weight of the convicted person so that the head does not separate from the body.

Stoning

They were sentenced to stoning only for those 18 types of crimes for which the Bible directly prescribes such execution. However, in the Talmud, stoning was replaced by throwing the condemned person onto the stones. According to the Talmud, the condemned person should be thrown from such a height that death occurs instantly, but his body is not disfigured.

Stoning happened like this: the person sentenced by the court was given an extract of narcotic herbs as a painkiller, after which he was thrown from a cliff, and if he did not die from this, one large stone was thrown on top of him.

The use of torture has been known since ancient times as a means of punishment, intimidation and obtaining confessions. In particular, various tortures were widely used in Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and other ancient states. Sarcophagus "Iron Maiden" This invention was born in the 18th century, when the decline of the Catholic Inquisition was observed. The tortured person was put into the sarcophagus and the door was closed. On the sides of the walls there were short spikes that dug into the skin. Sharp needles were also provided at eye level to deprive of vision. Spicy pear With the help of this torture, in the Middle Ages they raised blasphemers, women and men with unconventional orientation. The object was thrust into the sinner's mouth or anus, and into the woman's vagina. The executioner begins to unscrew the screw so that the pointed leaves bloom inside the victim. Death usually occurred from internal injuries and blood loss. Torture by rats This type of torture was developed in China and perfected during the Dutch Revolution in the 16th century. The undressed victim is fixed on a large table. A heavy cage with hungry rats is placed on the stomach, and the bottom is removed. The rats become frightened by the hot coals and begin to chew their way out through the victim's stomach. Placing metals in a person This torture was used in the Middle Ages. A small but deep incision was made on the victim's leg and a piece of iron or lead was inserted, then the wound was stitched up. The metal began to oxidize, causing severe pain and poisoning the body. Inflate through the anus The meaning of torture is very simple - to pump air into the victim through the anus. Applied to thieves in Ancient Rus'. The bound thief had his ears, mouth and nose stuffed with cotton. A large amount of air was pumped into the anus using bellows, causing the victim to swell. The anus was covered with a piece of cotton. Then an incision was made above the eyebrows, and blood flowed out of the executed person under pressure. Impale A wild, terrible execution known in the East. The victim was placed on his stomach and held tightly. A sharp stake was driven through the person's anus with a mallet. Then they sat the victim on the ground, and under the weight of the body, a sharp stick came out under the armpit or between the ribs. Spanish armchair This torture chair was widely used by the executioners of the Inquisition in Spain. The chair was made of iron; the prisoner was seated on it, and his legs were shackled in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. Then hot coals were placed under the feet to slowly roast the limbs, and oil was poured on top. Fire Torture Grid This torture was not used very often to torture the victim. An ordinary metal grate is 2 meters long and 1 meter wide. The prisoner was placed on the bars and tied tightly. The fire was not lit under, gradually increasing in size. Unfortunately, the interrogated person could not withstand the torture for a long time and died. Pectoral The Venetian Inquisition came up with a mocking torture using the pectoral. This thing was heated to a high temperature and put on the victim’s chest with tongs. If the accused did not confess, then the executioners repeatedly applied the pectoral to the living body. Usually, instead of a woman's breast, there were smoking, ragged holes. Crocodile pliers These terrible metal "Crocodile" pliers would heat up red-hot and grip the victim's penis. To alert the female executioner, with caressing movements or a tight bandage, they forced a persistent, hard erection and began to tear the penis into pieces. Bloody Eagle A very ancient torture; the victim was tied up and laid face down, the back was opened with a sharp scalpel, and all the ribs were broken off at the spinal column, spreading them in the form of wings. The wounds were sprinkled with salt to make the pain worse.
Acts of torture committed during war are considered a war crime and were prohibited back in 1949 by the Geneva Conventions

Let's start with torture, which can rightfully be included in the top twenty of the most inhumane abuses of people. The torture of the Inquisition included this method of punishing sinful people. In the Middle Ages, resorting to this cruel form of torture, the church punished sinners who were exposed in love for the same sex, for example, a woman with a woman or a man with a man. This type of love and relationship was considered blasphemy and a desecration of the church of God, so these people faced terrible punishment.

Instruments of torture of this type were pear-shaped. Accused female blasphemers had a “pear” placed in their vaginas, and male sinners had a “pear” placed in their anus or mouth. After the weapon was inserted into the victim's body, the executioner began the second stage of torture, which consisted of making the person suffer terribly after gradually, when unscrewing the screw, the sharp leaves of the pear opened inside the flesh. Opening up, the pear tore the internal organs of a woman or man into pieces. The fatal outcome occurred because the victim lost a large amount of blood, or from the deformation of internal organs caused by the opening of the deadly killer pear.

2. Punishing the guilty with the help of rats

This is one of the most cruel tortures in the history of mankind, which was invented in China, and was especially popular among the Inquisition in the 16th century. The victim experienced terrible torment. The main instrument of torture was rats. The person was placed on a large table; in the area of ​​the womb, a fairly heavy cage filled with rats was placed, which had to be hungry. Of course, this is far from the end: then the bottom of the cage was removed, after which the rats ended up on the victim’s belly, at the same time hot coals were laid on the top of the cage, the rats got scared from the heat and, trying to escape from the cage, gnawed at the person’s belly, so way of escaping. People died in terrible agony.

3. Torture with metal

The most terrible tortures do not end there. Next of the 20 most cruel tortures in the world, we present the brutal punishment of the victim with metal. The essence of the torture is that a piece of lead or iron was placed in a person’s body in a deep, but not very large incision, after which the wound on the body was sewn up. After this, the metal began to poison the victim’s body, as it oxidized. This type of torture was often used in the Middle Ages by the “pious” Inquisition.

4. Death by air

Torture, which deprived the victim of blood, is an ancient form of punishment that was resorted to in the territory of Kievan Rus. The human body was pumped with air using bellows through the anus. The victim was practically inflated like a balloon, after covering his nose, mouth and ears with cotton. After the thief was inflated (this type of punishment was often applied to thieves), the anus was closed with a cloth. After this, the skin was incised above the eyebrows; under pressure, blood flowed out of the victim in the area of ​​the incisions. The man died from blood loss.

5. Hellish torture comes from the East - count

Instruments of torture have always been cruel and brought a lot of suffering to the victim, but the stake was classified as one of the most savage, cruel and painful punishments known in the world. The accused was placed in a stomach-down position, without being given any opportunity to move. Next, a sharpened stake was practically driven inside the victim through the anus, after which he was seated and, under the weight of the convict’s body, the sharpened stake pierced the body in the area of ​​the armpits or ribs. Death came in terrible agony.

6. Spanish armchair

The Inquisition played the role of an executioner in the Middle Ages, its imagination created many terrible methods, one of which was the Spanish chair, which forced more than one person to suffer. The instrument of torture was made of metal, the condemned man was placed on it, his legs were fixed in stocks that were attached to the legs of the chair itself. After fixing the prisoner on a chair, hot coal was placed under his feet, on which the limbs were supposed to slowly roast, while the executioner constantly sprinkled the victim’s legs with oil. It’s even scary to imagine what kind of torment people who were in the Spanish chair of the Inquisition had to experience.

7. Witch Bathing Chair

Witch bathing chair - what is the essence of this torture?

The accused was fixed on the chair using ropes, then the chair was hooked onto a long stick and periodically lowered into the water for a certain period of time. This torture was not carried out in all seasons of the year, but only in the cold season (autumn - winter). If it was winter, then they made a hole for a chair with a sinner; the inquisitors could amuse themselves for several days, torturing him with such a dipping. Ultimately, the accused suffocated underwater from lack of oxygen.

8. Saw

The essence of torture was the ability to keep the victim conscious and torture him for as long as possible, so that the pain was constantly felt, bringing hellish torment. The saw is the Inquisition’s favorite method of torturing sinners. The person accused of committing sins was practically sawed into two parts, having previously placed the sinner in a head-down position, thereby making it possible to saturate the brain with oxygen, preventing the victim from losing consciousness during sawing to the diaphragm area. It’s scary to even imagine what a person felt when he was slowly sawed in half.

9. Gloomy rack

This instrument of torture is known in several forms: horizontal and vertical. If the vertical version was used on the victim, then the sinner was hooked under the ceiling, while twisting the joints, and weight was constantly added to the legs, stretching the body as much as possible. The use of a horizontal version of the rack ensured the rupture of the muscles and joints of the convict.

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I draw the attention of readers to the fact that the historical heritage is by no means forgotten, as evidenced by many museums around the world.

Not only has it not been forgotten, but it continues to improve at a new technological and psychological level. So it’s not evening yet. Gentlemen, it’s not evening yet.

In 1963, the CIA published the KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation manual for use during the Vietnam War. Includes specialized forms of interrogation, such as interrogation by electric shock, threat/fear, sensory deprivation, and isolation.

The second manual for conducting enhanced interrogation was the Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual, expanded and supplemented, for intelligence services in Latin American countries.

00. Propaganda

Perhaps the most subtle and insidious of all methods of “additional influence” was and remains propaganda. It can be considered a form of psychological torture. The beginning of modern "psychological attacks" was laid in the First World War. In the beginning, countries like Great Britain and Germany began to use propaganda as one of their effective weapons. At that time, the British had one of the most authoritative news systems in the world - and controlled most of the media.

Examples of British propaganda included the creation of pamphlets that were distributed from aircraft on the battlefields. The pamphlets contained information about various atrocities - both real and fake - allegedly committed by the German army against civilians. With drawings and caricatures.

The Germans were able to successfully use propaganda to force the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to declare jihad, or “holy war,” against the West. By the start of World War II, Adolf Hitler had adopted British propaganda methods and used them to influence the minds of the German people.

The period in history, which we know as the Middle Ages, is rightfully considered one of the bloodiest and cruelest. For a thousand years, Europe was a place where ferocity and sophistication flourished, giving rise to a huge variety of methods of torture and execution. It must be said that in the Middle Ages, in order to get on the rack or the gallows, you did not need a compelling reason. Being rude to your neighbor? Is the ruler's name pronounced in an insufficiently reverent tone? That's it, they'll come for you soon.

And the minds of the Middle Ages were distinguished by amazing ingenuity; new methods of torture appeared incredibly often. In addition, execution for the contingent of that time was one of the reasons to laugh - public entertainment. Morality? No, such a word did not exist in those centuries. And to prove our statement clearly, we present to your attention the top 10 most horrific and sophisticated tortures of the Middle Ages.

The name speaks for itself. This weapon was used mainly against heretics before their actual burning. "Fork" was popular in Rome, England and Italy.

The design of this weapon was a double-sided fork with a collar attached to it. The end of each fork was topped with two spikes. An engraving was also required: “I renounce.”

The collar was fastened to the suspect’s neck, as a result of which two spikes rested closely on the person’s chest, and the other two on the chin. The victim's head was completely immobilized, and this, let's face it, is not the most comfortable position. It was very difficult to be in such a state for a long time; only death could end the torment of the unfortunate man.

9. Vise

Torture was used mainly to extract confessions from suspects quickly and without unnecessary hassle. Moreover, the executioners did not care whether they were sincere or were given in an insane desire to stop the “interrogation”.

The victim's fingers were placed in a special device and then gradually compressed. The peculiarity of this torture is that the time it took could go into evil infinity.

Analogue of a modern paper press. During the torture, the unfortunate man's teeth crumbled first, then the jaw, followed by the bones of the skull. The madness did not end until, under pressure, the victim's brain began to emerge through the ears.

7. Coffin of torture

The offender was placed in a coffin made of metal and left there for a set period of time, the duration of which varied depending on the crime committed. However, most often, the period of punishment ended with the death of the person.

There were always many people next to the prisoner who wanted to “accelerate” his departure to the next world. They threw stones, sticks and other heavy or sharp objects at the convict.

Yes, the one you've probably heard about. There were two main types:

• Vertical. The victim was suspended from the very ceiling with his joints turned out, the reason for which was the huge weights that were attached to his legs.
• Horizontal. The suspect's body was fixed on a rack, and then stretched with a special mechanism until the muscles and joints were torn.

5. Iron Maiden

The appearance is similar to a sarcophagus in the shape of a female figure. The insides consisted of a large number of blades and spikes. The peculiarity of their arrangement was that when a person was placed in a sarcophagus, and his body was pierced by spikes, not one of the important organs was affected. And this led to the fact that the agony of the convicted person constantly lasted unbearably long and was accompanied by terrible torment.

The first time this instrument of torture was used was in 1515, and the first prisoner died within three days.

Contemporaries of this weapon considered it quite loyal, because it did not break bones or tear ligaments. A good reason, isn't it? But the secret of this torture lay elsewhere.

First of all, the condemned person was lifted on ropes and then seated on the “cradle”. The pain was so severe that the unfortunate people often lost consciousness. However, this oversight was immediately corrected and re-implanted. With the help of a rope, the executioner regulated the pressure of the tip, and he also impaled the victim - either slowly or with sharp jerks.

3. Torture by rats

A very cruel, sophisticated and terrible execution was popular among the inhabitants of Ancient China. The prisoner, completely naked, was placed on the table, while being tightly tied. Then, a cage with huge hungry rats was placed on his stomach. Due to the special design of the cage, the bottom could be opened easily, which they did, but hot coals were thrown onto its upper part. They disturbed the rats, who immediately scattered around the cage in search of a way out. But the only way out was the stomach of the condemned man, which the rodents took advantage of.

2. Iron Bull

This torture was invented by the Greeks. A huge bull-shaped mold was cast from metal (most often brass), with a small door on the side. The person was placed inside the mold and a fire was lit under it. The “bull” was heated to such a state that the brass turned yellow and the captive was slowly fried.

The weapon was designed in such a way that the screams, screams and pleas of the prisoner outside were like the roar of an angry animal.

It was invented by the cunning Chinese. The method is famous throughout the world, but its glory is bitter and sad. Scientists do not rule out the fact that this method is just a legend, because practically no significant evidence has been found of the use of this kind of torture.

Bamboo is known as a fast growing plant. Some of its species, growing, in particular, in China, can grow a whole meter in a day. This property became the main principle of bamboo torture.

The sprouts of this plant were sharpened with a knife, so that the result was analogous to spears. The victim was suspended parallel to the ground, above beds of young and sharp bamboo. Its sprouts pierced the skin of the unfortunate man and grew straight through his abdominal cavity, which is why death became as painful as possible.

This article outlined only ten of the most terrible tortures of that time. In fact, there were not even dozens, or hundreds, but thousands of different types. People then were merciless to their own kind, whether it was a neighbor, a friend or even a relative - no one was interested. Troubled, dangerous times have left their mark on everyone.