When it comes to the most painful medieval tortures, at the mention of this “wardrobe” with a woman’s face, the blood in the veins just freezes. "Iron Maiden"- so called a kind of sarcophagus with sharp spikes inside. But they didn’t put a mummy there, but a living person.

The Iron Maiden was such a torturous device that some historians question its actual use, except as a tool of intimidation. However, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, documentary evidence of the use of the "iron maiden" was found. But it was not invented in the Middle Ages (because the church kept a careful record of all types of torture used), but much later, around the end of the 18th century.

The unfortunate was placed in an iron cabinet with sharp spikes sticking out inside. When the door was locked, 20-centimeter spikes pierced directly into the body of the victim, and they were located in such a way that they did not touch the vital important organs. The arms, legs, shoulders, abdomen, buttocks and eyes were pierced. The execution could last for hours, because the spikes closed the wounds, and the blood oozed slowly. The closed space only exacerbated the victim's anguish, causing additional claustrophobia.

At the top of the terrible sarcophagus was the face of the Virgin Mary, which personified the triumph of the Christian church over heretics.

The medieval Inquisition did not use an instrument of torture called the "iron maiden" - a hollow humanoid figure made of iron, studded with spikes from the inside.

Maria Yeliferova - lecturer at the Russian State Humanitarian University, founder of the project on Planeta.ru to raise funds for the first independent journal on the Middle Ages:

This myth was launched by the German educator Johann Philipp Siebenkes in 1793. When, at the end of the 20th century, historians began to study the investigation files of the Inquisition gathering dust in the archives, they did not find a single mention of the “iron maiden”. She is not even mentioned in fiction written before 1793!

The main improbability of this myth is that in pre-industrial Europe, the production of metal products of this size and complexity was expensive (after all, all work was manual). And through the inquisitorial courts of Germany passed tens of thousands of defendants. Supplying investigators with the right amount of "iron maidens" would cost a pretty penny. Why these extra expenses, if there are much cheaper ways to torture people (for example, hanging by the hands from the ceiling beam - a really popular method of torture in the 15th-17th centuries)? Authors late XVIII and XIX centuries, who lived in the era of industrial metallurgy, such questions did not come to mind.

The "iron maidens" of modern museums are copies of the same exhibit - the "iron maiden" from Nuremberg. Its original has been lost, but it was created at the beginning of the 19th century. as a kind of archaeological reconstruction according to the description of Siebenckes. The fashion for the "horrors of the Middle Ages" originated in the second half of the 18th century, when the genre of the Gothic novel arose; the advent of romanticism at the turn of the century gave it a new impetus. Wealthy romantics began to buy medieval houses, paintings, in general, any items - including instruments of torture. The Iron Maiden was an excellent collector's item, and whoever designed it had great marketing sense.

During this era, Europe was swept by a wave of forgeries under the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: in 1768, Thomas Chatterton tried to write poems in Middle English and pass them off as the writings of a medieval monk; in 1796 Henry Ireland fabricated "the unknown plays of Shakespeare"; in 1816-1818 Vaclav Ganka forged two "Old Bohemian" books of songs and poems; in 1829, Étienne de Lamotte-Langon published a book on witch trials that never existed in France.

This is just a partial list of the most famous falsifications. It was against this background that the appearance of the “iron maiden” occurred.

It is especially interesting that the invention and exploitation of the myth of the "iron maiden" coincides in time with the formation of sadomasochistic sexuality in Europe. The Marquis de Sade was a contemporary of Siebenckes; Leopold von Sacher-Masoch lived in the second half of the 19th century, but he clearly had predecessors - masochistic sex is described in the erotic novel by the English writer John Cleland "Fanny Hill's Memoirs", published in 1748 (in the USA - in 1821) .

In the Middle Ages, the sadomasochistic type of sexual imagination is unknown, although people who torture their partners in everyday life, of course, have always existed. The name "iron maiden" is thought up extremely effectively - it contains a clear oxymoron ("virgin" is associated with innocence, tenderness and virtue, and at the same time - with sexual attractiveness). To call an instrument of torture a "virgin" is to give a subconsciously erotic direction to the reader's thoughts. The equation "love passion = torture" is a stable metaphor in European literature, which existed long before de Sade, but only with him took on a literal meaning.

What do you think was the worst thing in the Middle Ages? Lack of toothpaste, good soap or shampoo? The fact that medieval discos were held to the tedious music of mandolins? Or maybe the fact that medicine did not yet know vaccinations and antibiotics? Or endless wars? Yes, our ancestors didn't go to the cinema or send emails to each other. But they were also inventors. And the worst thing that they invented was the tools for torture, the tools with which the system of Christian justice was created - the Inquisition. And for those who lived in the Middle Ages, "Iron Maiden" is not the name of a heavy metal band, but one of the most disgusting gadgets of the time.

The term "inquisition" comes from the Latin. Inquisitio, meaning "interrogation, inquiry." The term was widespread in the legal sphere even before the emergence of medieval church institutions with that name, and meant the clarification of the circumstances of the case, by investigation, usually through interrogations, often with the use of force. And only over time, the Inquisition began to be understood as spiritual trials of anti-Christian heresies.

The torture of the Inquisition had hundreds of varieties. At the same time, the interrogations were carried out in secret, and the execution in the squares was visually familiar to contemporaries, so the artists of those times sketched it with certainty. But the tortures of the Inquisition were painted based on other people's words, often relying on imagination. Some medieval instruments of torture have survived to this day, but most often even museum exhibits have been restored according to descriptions. Their variations are amazing. Before you are twenty instruments of torture of the Middle Ages.

20. Spiked shoes

These are iron shoes with a sharp spike under the heel. The spike could be unscrewed with a screw. With the spike unscrewed, the torture victim had to stand on his toes as long as he had the strength. Stand on your toes and see how long you can last.
Central Europe is the main place of his popularity. The sinner was stripped naked, put on a chair studded with spikes. It was impossible to move - otherwise, not only stab wounds appeared on the body, but also tears. If this was not enough for the inquisitors, they took spikes or tongs in their hands and tormented the limbs of the victim. Of course, you will not have “studs in reverse” under your heels, so sinners endured much longer. But, when their strength dried up, the body itself leaned on the heel. Then everything is clear - pain and blood.

19. Heretic's Fork

Four spikes - two digging into the chin, two - into the sternum, did not allow the victim to make any head movements, including lowering his head lower.

18. Witch bath chair

The sinner was tied to an armchair suspended from a long pole, and lowered under water for a while, then they were allowed to take a breath of air, and again - under water. A popular time of year for such torture is late fall or even winter. An ice hole was made in the ice, and after a while the victim not only suffocated under water without air, but even in such a welcome air was covered with a crust of ice. Sometimes the torture lasted for days.

17. Spanish boot


This is a fastening on the leg with a metal plate, which, with each question and subsequent refusal to answer it, as required, tightened more and more to break the bones of the person's legs. To enhance the effect, sometimes an inquisitor was connected to the torture, who hit the mount with a hammer. Often, after such torture, all the bones of the victim below the knee were crushed, and the wounded skin looked like a bag for these bones.

16. Water torture

This method was "peeped" by the inquisitors in the east. The sinner was tied with barbed wire or strong ropes to a special wooden device such as a table with a very raised middle - so that the sinner's stomach would stick out as far as possible. His mouth was stuffed with rags or straw so that it would not close, and a tube was inserted into his mouth, through which an incredible amount of water was poured into the victim. If the victim did not interrupt this torture in order to confess to something, or the purpose of the torture was unambiguous death, at the end of the test the victim was removed from the table, laid on the ground, and the executioner jumped on her swollen stomach. The ending is understandable and disgusting.

15. Iron hook (cat's claw)

It is clear that it was not used to scratch your back. The flesh of the victim was torn - slowly, painfully, to the point that with the same hooks, not only pieces of the body, but also the ribs were pulled out from her.

14. Rack

The same rack. There were two main options: vertical, when the victim was hung from the ceiling, twisting the joints and hanging all the heavy weights from her legs, and horizontal, when the body of the sinner was fixed on the rack and stretched by a special mechanism until her muscles and joints were torn .

13. Quartering by horses.

The victim was tied to four horses - by the arms and legs. Then the animals were allowed to run. There were no options - only death.

12. Pear

This device was inserted into the holes of the body - it is clear that not in the mouth or ears - and opened so as to inflict unimaginable pain on the victim, tearing these holes.

11. Purification of the soul

In many Catholic countries, the clergy believed that the soul of a sinner could still be cleansed. For these purposes, they had to use either pouring boiling water into the throat of a sinner, or throwing hot coals into the same place. You understand that in caring for the soul there was no place for caring for the body.

10. Hanging cage

Assumed two extreme ways of exploitation. In cold weather, like a witch's bathing chair, the sinner in this cage, suspended from a long pole, was lowered under water and taken out of it, causing him to freeze and suffocate.

And in the heat, the sinner hung in it in the sun for as many days as he could endure without a drop of water to drink.

9. Skull press

How a sinner could somehow repent of something, when first his teeth clenched and crumbled, then his jaw crumbled, followed by the bones of the skull - until the brain poured out of his ears - I do not understand. Even more inaccessible to my consciousness is the information that in some countries a version of this crusher is still used as an interrogation tool.

8. Bonfire

This was the main way to eradicate the witch's influence on other people's sinless souls. The burnt soul ruled out any possibility of embarrassing or soiling the sinless soul. What doubts can there be?

7. Vigil or Cradle of Judas

The know-how belongs to Hippolyte Marsili. At one time, this instrument of torture was considered loyal - it did not break bones, it did not tear ligaments. First, the sinner was lifted on a rope, and then he sat down on the Cradle, and the top of the triangle was inserted into the same holes as the Pear. It hurt to such an extent that the sinner lost consciousness. It was lifted, "pumped out" and again planted on the Cradle. I do not think that in moments of enlightenment, sinners thanked Hippolytus for his invention.

6. Cradle

Cousin of the Cradle of Judas. I don't think the picture leaves any room for imagination as to how this instrument of torture was used. Also a fair amount of crap.

5. Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden. Nuremberg Maiden.

This is not "three girls under the window." This is a huge sarcophagus in the form of an open empty female figure, inside which numerous blades and sharp spikes are fixed. They are located in such a way that the vital organs of the victim imprisoned in the sarcophagus are not affected, so the agony of the condemned to death was long and painful.

The Virgin was first used in 1515. The condemned man died for three days.

4. Interrogation chair

Central Europe is the main place of his popularity. The sinner was stripped naked, put on a chair studded with spikes. It was impossible to move - otherwise, not only stab wounds appeared on the body, but also tears. If this was not enough for the inquisitors, they took spikes or tongs in their hands and tormented the limbs of the victim.

3. Number

In the East they came up with this terrible execution. The fact is that a person who was skillfully impaled - his end had to stick out of the victim's throat (and not as shown in this picture), could live for several more days - suffer physically and mentally, since this execution was public.

2. Saw

The executioners and inquisitors of those years showed remarkable ingenuity in their work. Better than ours, they knew why a person experiences pain, and they knew that in an unconscious state, he would not feel pain. And what is the execution in the Middle Ages without sadism? A person could meet ordinary death everywhere, it was not uncommon. And an unusual and very painful death is sawing. The victim was hung upside down so that the blood would not stop supplying oxygen to the head, and the person experienced the full horror of pain. It used to happen that he lived to see the moment when they slowly, slowly managed to saw his body up to the diaphragm.

1. Wheeling

Are you still reading this post? Are you not stupid? Do you hide a BDSM kit from your friends under the bed? No, no and NO? I don't understand how you tolerate it. I finished it on the third attempt, and each was considered the last. Well, then here is an instrument of torture for you, after which you will forget to read such posts once and for all.

Sentenced to wheeling with an iron crowbar or wheel, all the large bones of the body were broken, then he was tied to a large wheel, and the wheel was mounted on a pole. The condemned would end up face up, looking up at the sky, and die like that 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.

And, although it is believed that the instruments of torture were more often demonstrated than used, nevertheless, it was not for nothing that the UN proclaimed June 26 since 1997 as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

THE IRON MAID OF TOLEDO

When French troops entered Toledo during the Spanish War (1808–1814), General Lasalle visited the palace of the Inquisition. Many instruments of torture struck the imagination of even French soldiers who had seen death. One of these tools, unique in the sophistication of the death that he brought to his victims, deserves a separate discussion. In the underground hall adjoining the torture chamber, in a niche in the wall, there was a statue made by the hands of monks and depicting the Virgin Mary. She had a gilded halo on her head, and a banner in her right hand. Folds of silk robes fell from her shoulders, but beneath them a cuirass was visible. Upon closer examination, one could find that the entire front of the figure was studded with spikes with points outward. Her arms were articulated and their movement was provided by a mechanism located behind a partition in the body of an iron maiden. One of the servants of the Inquisition was ordered to show the statue in action (en manoeuvre, as the general put it). The maiden slowly opened her arms, as if she was going to gently press someone to her chest. Instead of a man, they slipped her a stuffed satchel of a Polish grenadier. The statue pressed him to her chest, and when, at the order of the general, the servant of the Inquisition opened her hands, everyone saw that the spikes had pierced the satchel to a depth of two or three inches, and it remained hanging on the chest of the iron maid of Toledo.

("Percy's Jokes", Reuben and Sholto Percy,

London, 1820–1823)

From the book of 100 great temples author Nizovsky Andrey Yurievich

From the book Mythological Dictionary author Archer Vadim

Virgo (other - ind.) - "god" - a class of gods distributed over three cosmic spheres: celestial - Dyaus, Varuna, Mitra and other adityas, Surya, Savitar, Pushan, Vishnu, Vivasvat, Ushas, ​​Ashvins; atmospheric - Indra, Maruts, Vayu, Vata, Trita, Aptya, Apam, Napat, Matarishvan, Ahi Budhnya, Aja

From the book Encyclopedic Dictionary (T-F) author Brockhaus F. A.

Toledo Toledo (Dan. Toletum) – ch. mountains Spanish province of the same name, on the right ber. R. Togo. Surrounded by battlements; inside it is a network of narrow, crooked, sometimes steeply rising uphill and dark streets and lanes. Built by King Alfonso X in the 13th century, on

From the book Big Soviet Encyclopedia(TO) author TSB

by Brian Lane

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From the book Torture and Punishment by Brian Lane

THE IRON MAID OF NUREMBERG Perhaps the most infamous execution instrument to have found its way into folklore is the Iron Maiden of Nuremberg. In the country where she was born, she was called Eiserne Jungfrau. However, the Spanish city of Toledo claims to be the first in the invention.

From the book Year of the Squirrel. Zodiac forecast 2012 author Globa Pavel Pavlovich

the author Borsch Tatiana

Virgo In June, you will be too demanding of your surroundings. And if you do not lower the bar, then conflicts cannot be avoided. Work, career, business. In June, you are at the peak of your professional activity and have the right to count on recognition for already results achieved. However, not all

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Virgo You always have a clear schedule and long-term plans. However, this month, allow yourself to step aside - you have such an opportunity. Work, career, business. August is ideal for holidays and various family events. But if you can't live without work, then

From the book Horoscope for the whole family for 2016 the author Borsch Tatiana

Virgo The next period is favorable, but very restless and fussy. In addition to a large amount of work, you will also have to work hard to find a balance between work and personal life. Work, career, business. In September, you will complete an important project and you can prepare for

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Virgo Your position is getting stronger, but not everyone likes it. Therefore, act like an experienced commander - advancing, control your rear all the time. Work, career, business. Most of month is very favorable. You are completing an important project or a major part of it and have the right to

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Virgo High expectations are placed on you, but sometimes they are excessive. It bothers you - in fact, how long? Work, career, business. In general, November is a good month for you. You will intuitively choose the best solutions and be able to convey them to your partners. Relationships with colleagues from other

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Virgo All month you can be torn between family affairs and work responsibilities. And there, and here without you - well, just nowhere! Work, career, business. A month is not bad for completing old projects and making adjustments to new cases. There will be a lot of work, but it will require not

From the book Garden Calendar author Vyaznikova Tatiana V.

From the book Madrid. Escorial, Segovia, Toledo. Guide author Bucher Tobias

**Toledo In the unique image of the city **Toledo (Toledo) (10) imprinted traces of many cultures. From the Romans, he inherited the ruins of the circus and the patroness, the holy martyr Leocadia, who lived in the era of Diocletian. In the days of the Visigoths, from the VI century, Toledo was the capital of the kingdom. Here

Seit Castle. 1654

A heavy curtain of deep purple thick satin embroidered with gold thread fluttered in the wind rushing in through the wide open window. As if alive, she beat against a wall covered with an exquisite mosaic pattern. The sound was like the flapping of the wings of a mortally wounded bird, desperate to fly, but doomed to bleed to death.

It would be necessary to close the window, but none of those present in the huge chambers of the ancient castle even tried to do it.

In the vague twilight, their faces were barely distinguishable. All four stood near a small marble dais with a golden font at the very top.

They were waiting.

Their eyes were riveted to the tightly closed door leading to the chambers. They were completely different from each other: an old man with the smooth skin of a baby and deep sunken eyes, in strange clothes, reminiscent of bird plumage; old woman with long hooked nose, wrinkled neck and gray hair sticking out in all directions, wrapped in brocade and velvet, which only emphasized her ugliness, two young girls with the faces of harlots, dressed in transparent fabrics.

They were different. And yet, something united them: an expression of impatience, barely restrained passion, written on all, without exception, faces.

From somewhere to the left came a barely perceptible groan or sigh, low, almost imperceptible to the human ear. It seemed to come from the depths of the hideous bronze statue that towered in the center of the hall. The figure resembled the crudely molded body of some deity, most likely a woman, whose ugly head was crowned with the likeness of a diadem, in which real precious stones shimmered mysteriously. One of the girls turned her head towards the sound, but only for a moment, then she stared at the door again.

A second later, the door silently opened to let in a fragile female figure, half-hidden by a dark veil. She froze on the threshold, as if in indecision, then the light fabric slid off her shoulders and smoothly sank to the feet of a pretty, like an angel, girl, almost a girl.

Slowly, as if in a dream, she took a step towards the font. Then another, and another. She moved forward, as if in obedience to an order heard only by her, a young, beautiful body shone in the twilight with a gentle mother-of-pearl light. Her heavy, thick hair trailed behind her across the floor like a golden train. Wide-open eyes were fixed somewhere far away, outside the room.

The girl lifted her leg and placed it on the marble steps. Climbing up to the font, she carefully stepped over the low side and still slowly lay down, stretched out to her full height.

In complete silence there was a dull muttering of the old man, incomprehensible, frightening words broke from his lips, echoing in every corner of the huge chambers.

The pink skin of the young beauty turned red. Fresh, warm blood, which was filled with a font, hid a beautiful body.

The old man's voice grew louder, his eyes lit up with devilish fire, and finally what everyone expected with such impatience happened - the blood in the font swayed, boiled and overflowed the girl with her head.

At that moment, everyone who stood at the foot of the font, in a single impulse, emitted something like a groan, expressing the highest degree of pleasure. This sound was much louder than the quiet sob that came from the direction of the bronze statue…

CHAPTER 1

I sat on a hard, uncomfortable chair that, among other things, desperately creaked and felt an irresistible desire to throw my head up and howl at the moon. So what, that outside the window is a hot August day and the sun is shining with might and main. I was so sick that I could have done just fine without the night sky.

In the spacious auditorium there was an even hum of voices, dozens of boys and girls, yesterday's schoolchildren, scurried past me like fry on the shallows. For the past five days, I have been looking at them and I understand more and more clearly that I have become quite an adult. Just yesterday I was younger than everyone else and smarter than many, and now ... There are so many of them around: everyone is younger than me, and my mind, alas, can already be considered ordinary life experience. And I'm only twenty-four. Or already?

A serious guy came up with an emerging fluff over his upper lip and held out a thin stack of leaves. So ... Let's see: a certificate, a certificate, a questionnaire ... Everything seems to be in order. I entered his data into a journal and put the papers aside. And so - the whole day. The time allotted for receiving documents was ending, and applicants were in a continuous stream from morning to evening.

And those eternal stupid questions! In five days, I answered a hundred times that in the column "education" you need to write "average", a thousand - that a mother selling Chinese clothes on the market should be called a private entrepreneur, and a million - that instead of answering the question about marital status it is necessary to put a dash, and not list all the available grandparents. And who came up with this question? Where do these little ones get husbands and wives, though ... Yes, today, perhaps, the question is relevant. Acceleration!

Another entrant interrupted my thoughts and all over again: a certificate, an application, a questionnaire, a certificate ... Stop, where is the certificate? I took another look at the papers on the table. So it is, the certificate from the clinic was not enough. I had to patiently explain to the blinking fat woman with a frustrated face that documents were not supposed to be accepted without the U-86 form. The girl, biting her lip, listened to me and walked away, bowing her head. Poor fellow. I wonder if he will be able to get a certificate or not? Now there are terrible queues in the clinics. It would be good to do it.

I sighed, enjoying the little respite.

When six months ago I, Liza Lokteva, decided to move to this city, it seemed to me that I was doing the right thing. In fact, that's what I thought right now. After unpleasant incident, which I fell into last summer, too much has changed in my life, something has left it. Maybe that's when I finally matured.

But here, in a new place, everything was not so simple. I did not change the apartment, Zinka remained in it, a homeless girl whom I met during that terrible period and to whom I owed the salvation of my own life. Zinka tried to dissuade me from moving, having tried all conceivable and unthinkable ways to achieve her goal. But I firmly decided that I had to change the situation in order to understand myself and how to continue to relate to life.

In a new place, I quickly found housing, acquired numerous acquaintances and even a serious admirer, but I was not lucky with work. At home, I was considered a fairly well-known artist and did not experience a shortage of orders.

Everything was different here. For six months I did not manage to acquire a single more or less regular client, but I had to make sure that the city was literally teeming with unemployed talented artists, including those who worked in my field, namely, in book illustration.

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