Torture chamber

For other uses, see Torture chamber (disambiguation).

An artist's depiction of a torture chamber of the Inquisition, ca. 1736. The Inquisitors and the clerk are seen on the right.[1] The Inquisitors were present to hear the confession, as soon as the torture victim gave up resisting, and the clerk recorded it.[1] The strappado i.e. the rope and pulley system through which the victims, having their hands tied behind their backs and the lifting rope attached to their wrists, were raised and then lowered violently from the chamber ceiling, is visible on the right.[2]

A torture chamber is a room equipped, and sometimes specially constructed, for the infliction of torture.[3][4] The medieval torture chamber was windowless and often built underground, dimly lit and specifically designed to induce horror, dread and despair.[5]

Historically, torture chambers were located in royal palaces, in castles of the nobility and even buildings belonging to the church. They featured secret trap-doors which could be activated to throw victims into dark dungeons where they remained and eventually died. The skeletal remains of people who disappeared were strewn on the floor of the hidden dungeons. Other times the dungeons under the trap-doors included pits of water where the victim was thrown to drown after a lengthy torture session in the chamber above.[6]

In Peru, the torture chambers of the Spanish Inquisition were specifically constructed with thick walls so that the screams of the victims could not penetrate them and no sound could be heard from the outside. Other more sophisticated designs used principles of acoustics to muffle the screams of the tortured and included walls which recessed and protruded in such a fashion as to reflect the screams of the victims so that the sounds would not be carried to the exterior.[citation needed]

The mere presence of the torture chamber was used as a form of intimidation and coercion. The victims were first shown the chamber and if they confessed they would not be tortured inside it. Other times the torture chamber was used as the final destination in a series of prison cells where the victims would gradually be moved from one type of cell to another, under progressively worsening conditions of incarceration, and if they did not recant in the earlier stages they would finally reach the torture chamber. The final stage of actually going to the torture chamber itself, just prior to the initiation of torture, was euphemistically called the "Question".[1]

  1. ^ a b c James Maxwell Anderson (2002). Daily life during the Spanish Inquisition. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 68–69. ISBN 978-0-313-31667-8. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  2. ^ A. L. Maycock; Ronald Knox (July 2003). Inquisition from Its Establishment to the Great Schism: An Introductory Study. Kessinger Publishing. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-7661-7290-6. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  3. ^ Torture chamber. Dictionary.com Archived 29 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. WordNet 3.0. Princeton University. (accessed: 29 July 2009).
  4. ^ Princeton Wordnet definition of Torture chamber. Wordnetweb.princeton.edu. Retrieved on 2011-08-30.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ryley Scott was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Alger1889 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).