{{Short description|Room where torture is inflicted}} {{Other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}} [[File:Verscheiden wijzen van pijnigen bij de inquisitie gebruikelijk.jpg|thumb|300px|An artist's depiction of a torture chamber of the Inquisition, ca. 1736. The Inquisitors and the clerk are seen on the right.<ref name="Maxwell">{{cite book|author=James Maxwell Anderson|title=Daily life during the Spanish Inquisition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XxUvfIko1TUC&pg=PA68|accessdate=30 August 2011|year=2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-31667-8|pages=68–69}}</ref> The Inquisitors were present to hear the confession, as soon as the torture victim gave up resisting, and the clerk recorded it.<ref name="Maxwell"/> 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.<ref name="Inquisition from Its Establishment">{{cite book|author1=A. L. Maycock|author2=Ronald Knox|title=Inquisition from Its Establishment to the Great Schism: An Introductory Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DmL8CljbqDwC&pg=PA162|accessdate=30 August 2011|date=July 2003|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=978-0-7661-7290-6|page=162}}</ref>]]
A '''torture chamber''' is a room equipped, and sometimes specially constructed, for the infliction of torture.<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Torture%20chamber Torture chamber. Dictionary.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629015948/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Torture%20chamber |date=29 June 2011 }}. WordNet 3.0. Princeton University. (accessed: 29 July 2009).</ref><ref name="Princeton">[http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Torture+chamber&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&h= Princeton Wordnet definition of Torture chamber]. Wordnetweb.princeton.edu. Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref> The medieval torture chamber was windowless and often built underground, dimly lit and specifically designed to induce horror, dread and despair.<ref name="Ryley Scott"/>
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.<ref name="Alger1889"/>
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|date=March 2023}}
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".<ref name="Maxwell"/>
== History == [[File:Tower of London, Traitors Gate.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The Tower of London and Traitor's Gate. In the Middle Ages and into the Tudor and Stuart periods, torture was carried out in its chambers]] Throughout history, torture chambers have been used in a multiplicity of ways starting from Roman times. Torture chamber use during the Middle Ages was frequent. Religious, social and political persecution led to the widespread use of torture during that time. Torture chambers were also used during the Spanish Inquisition and at the Tower of London.<ref name="Spanish">[http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/torquemada/index.html Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition:Chapter 3. The water cure. by Anthony Bruno. From Crime Library.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060708192018/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/torquemada/index.html |date=8 July 2006 }}. Crimelibrary.com. Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref><ref name="Tower of London">[http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/greater-london/hauntings/the-tower-of-london.html ''The White Tower once held torture chambers within its crypt''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081108005928/http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/greater-london/hauntings/the-tower-of-london.html |date=8 November 2008 }} From ''Mysterious Britain'' website. Retrieved 5 March 2007</ref><ref name="Tudor">[http://tudors.crispen.org/tower/state_prison.html ''There was no permanent torture-chamber. The basement of the White Tower was used. But prisoners could also be tortured in their cells''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070420005117/http://tudors.crispen.org/tower/state_prison.html |date=20 April 2007 }} From ''Tudor'' website. Retrieved 5 March 2007</ref>
Another example of a torture chamber, perhaps not generally well known, is "The Thieves' Tower" in the Alsace region of France. Once a tower used for torture, it is now a small museum displaying instruments used upon the prisoners to get them to confess crimes.<ref name="alsace-route-des-vins.com">[http://www.oconus.com/Main/eArticle.asp?205 Overseas Military Portal website.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061104181353/http://www.oconus.com/Main/eArticle.asp?205 |date=4 November 2006 }} quote:''The Thieves Tower wasn’t a hideout for medieval criminals, but a place where they would pay for their crimes. This museum is home to an authentic torture chamber on the tower’s first floor, which highlights the different methods of punishing criminals, and the tools of the trade, which made this torture so agonizing such as the infamous Rack.'' (article by Michael J. Meese 1/26/2005), retrieved 6-07-2007</ref>
In Venice, the Palazzo Ducale had its own torture chamber, which was deemed to be of such importance that renovations started in 1507 so that the chamber walls could be kept strong and secure.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard John Goy|title=Building Renaissance Venice: patrons, architects and builders, c. 1430–1500|url=https://archive.org/details/buildingrenaissa0000goyr|url-access=registration|accessdate=30 August 2011|year=2006|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-11292-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/buildingrenaissa0000goyr/page/231 231]–}}</ref>
===Ashoka's Hell=== {{main|Ashoka's Hell}} According to the narrations of Ashokavadana, King Ashoka, prior to his conversion to Buddhism, was a fierce and sadistic ruler, known as ''Ashoka the Fierce'', who built a palatial torture chamber known as ''Ashoka's Hell''. The legend of the torture palace is detailed in the writings of the Ashokavadana.
According to Ashokavadana, Ashoka asked Girika, who was the official executioner of his kingdom, to design an elaborate torture chamber disguised as a beautiful and "enticing" palace adorned with all kinds of decorations and full of amenities such as exclusive baths decorated with flowers, fruit trees and many ornaments. It was artfully designed to make people long to just look at it.<ref name="A History of Ancient India"/>
According to legend, beneath the veneer of beauty deep inside the exclusive mansion, torture chambers were constructed which were full of the most sadistic and cruel instruments of torture including furnaces producing molten metal.<ref name="SaranMishi2012">{{cite book|author1=Mishi Saran|author2=Mishi|title=Chasing the Monk's Shadow|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hkOBNbnOGYC&pg=PA274|accessdate=18 April 2013|date=1 July 2012|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-306439-8|page=274|quote=By Xuanzang's account, King Ashoka was at first a horrid man. He had custom-built torture chambers that he enclosed in high walls. There were furnaces of molten metal, ugly sharp instruments. Every criminal in the land was consigned to this compound, all who crossed its threshold had to die.}}</ref>
According to the accounts contained in the Ashokavadana, Girika, the architect of the chamber, was inspired by descriptions of the five tortures of the Buddhist hell for the design of the torture chamber and of the torture methods he inflicted upon his victims.<ref name="Scharfstein1995">{{cite book|author=Ben-Ami Scharfstein|title=Amoral Politics: The Persistent Truth of Machiavellism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibkxwtmP7_UC&pg=PA61|accessdate=18 April 2013|year=1995|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-1886-5|pages=61–62|quote=The executioner persuades Ashoka to build a prison in which the tortures imitate those suffered in Buddhist hell [...] In response the executioner wants to kill Ashoka-on the grounds that the king has promised that no one who has entered the prison will leave it alive-...}}</ref><ref name="Obeyesekere2002">{{cite book|author=Gananath Obeyesekere|title=Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yllblMkRgMMC&pg=PA172|accessdate=18 April 2013|year=2002|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-23243-3|pages=172–173}}</ref> The torture chamber was so terrifying, that King Ashoka himself was thought to have visited hell so that he could perfect its evil design.<ref name="Vittachi2007">{{cite book|author=Nury Vittachi|title=The Kama Sutra of Business: Management Principles from Indian Classics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xK5CBu0UBygC&pg=PT162|accessdate=18 April 2013|date=13 April 2007|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-82223-4|page=162|quote=He apparently built a torture chamber that was so horrible that people said he had descended to Hell itself to pick up design ideas. This room was a ...}}</ref>
Ashoka made Girika promise that he would never allow anyone who entered the palace to exit alive, including Ashoka himself.<ref name="A History of Ancient India"/><ref name="Rich2010"/> In the ''Biographical Sutra of King Ashoka'' the palace is described by the sentence: 'King Ashoka constructed a hell'.<ref name="Brazier2002">{{cite book|author=David Brazier|title=The New Buddhism|url=https://archive.org/details/newbuddhism00davi|url-access=registration|accessdate=18 April 2013|date=1 June 2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-29518-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/newbuddhism00davi/page/59 59]|quote=There is, for instance, the account in the Biographical Sutra of King Ashoka of how the king, like any good tyrant, had a secret police force and this was backed up by a singularly sinister torture chamber. In the text, it simply refers to this place by saying that 'King Ashoka constructed a hell'}}</ref>
Some time later a Buddhist monk by the name of Samudra happened to visit the palace and upon entering he was informed by Girika that he would be tortured to death,<ref name="ConferenceSharma2008">{{cite book|author1=Indian Society for Buddhist Studies. Conference|author2=Satya Prakash Sharma|author3=Baidyanath Labh |author4=Vijay Kumar Singh |author5=Anita K. Billawaria|title=The ocean of Buddhist wisdom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnYkAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=18 April 2013|year=2008|publisher=New Bharatiya Book Corporation|isbn=978-81-8315-104-7|volume=3|page=135|quote=One day he arrived at Pataliputra and entered the torture chamber built by Asoka which was beautiful from outside. As soon as he entered he was seized by Candagirika, the chief executive who told him that he would be executed by...}}</ref><ref name="The Legend of King Asoka">{{cite book|title=The Legend of King Asoka: A Study and Translation of the Asokavadana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kp9uaQTQ8h8C&pg=PA73|accessdate=18 April 2013|year=1989|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-0616-0|pages=73–74|quote=Asoka is impressed by this, and enquires as to Samudra's identity. The monk tells him he is a disciple of the Buddha and a follower of Dharma, and reprimands him for having built the torture chamber. Instead, Asoka should guarantee the ...}}</ref> and was subsequently led into the torture chamber. His torturers however failed to injure him and he appeared able to neutralise their torture methods by performing miracles.<ref name="A History of Ancient India"/><ref name="Rich2010"/><ref name="The Legend of King Asoka"/>
Ashoka converted to Buddhism when he witnessed Samudra's miracles inside the torture chamber.<ref name="A History of Ancient India"/><ref name="Rich2010"/><ref name="The Legend of King Asoka"/> He also ordered Girika burned alive and ordered the demolition of the torture palace. According to the Ashokavadana, "the beautiful jail was then torn down and a guarantee of security was extended to all beings".<ref name="A History of Ancient India">{{cite book|title=A History of Ancient And Early Medieval India: From The Stone Age to the 12Th Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA332|accessdate=18 April 2013|date=1 September 2008|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-1120-0|page=332|quote=He was so given to sadistic pleasure that he built a hell on earth – an elaborate and horrific torture chamber, where he amused himself by watching the agony of his unfortunate victims.}}</ref><ref name="Rich2010">{{cite book|author=Bruce Rich|title=To Uphold the World: A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c9ZoeR3r7ngC&pg=PT147|accessdate=18 April 2013|date=1 March 2010|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-8070-9553-9|page=147|quote= When Ashoka offers him his new job and his parents hesitate to grant him permission to leave, Girika promptly murders them both. Faxian tells us that Ashoka instructed his state torturer to camouflage the torture chambers as an enticing ...}}</ref>
Xuanzang in his writings mentions that in the 7th century AD he had visited the place where Ashoka's Hell once was.<ref name="A History of Ancient India"/> In India the palace is known as "Ashoka's Hell" and its location near Pataliputra became a popular destination for pilgrims. Faxian also reports visiting it and his account of the story of the palace differs slightly from that of Xuanzang's.<ref name="The Legend of King Asoka"/><ref name="SchlagerLauer2001">{{cite book|author1=Neil Schlager|author2=Josh Lauer|title=Science and its times: understanding the social significance of scientific discovery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYU-AQAAIAAJ|accessdate=18 April 2013|year=2001|publisher=Gale Group|isbn=978-0-7876-3933-4|page=64|quote=It appears that Asoka maintained a prison, with an extensive network of torture chambers, for dealing with his enemies. Certainly it is clear that he fought a number of wars, and spilled plenty of blood, in the course of securing his empire ...}}</ref><ref name="Durant2011">{{cite book|author=Will Durant|title=Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ru4LPyMAxxkC&pg=PT707|accessdate=18 April 2013|date=7 June 2011|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-1-4516-4668-9|pages=707|quote=Yuan Chwang, a Chinese traveler who spent many years in India in the seventh century a.d., tells us that the prison maintained by Ashoka north of the capital was still remembered in Hindu tradition as "Ashoka's Hell." There, said his ...}}</ref>
===Inquisition=== ==== Methods of coercion ==== [[File:Spisska Hrad 048.jpg|thumb|250px|Artist's depiction of the ''strappado'', including the weight hanging from the victim's ankles. On the left the Brazen bull is illustrated]] According to Frederick Howard Wines in his book ''Punishment and Reformation: A Study of the Penitentiary System'' there were three main types of coercion employed in the torture chamber: coercion by cord, water, or fire.<ref name="P and R">{{cite book|author=Frederick Howard Wines|title=Punishment and Reformation. A Study of the Penitentiary System. New Edition, Revised and Enlarged by Winthrop D. Lane|date=January 1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vqVaZKBEGMYC|accessdate=30 August 2011|publisher=Elibron.com|isbn=978-1-4212-3460-1|page=100|quote=In the torture chamber, the three principal forms of coercion were by the cord, by water, and by fire. In the second of these, which has not been described..}}</ref> There were five stages of torture that could have been applied to the accused: he could have been threatened with torture,<ref name="Nature">{{cite book|author=Sir Norman Lockyer|title=Nature|url=https://archive.org/details/nature17unkngoog|accessdate=30 August 2011|year=1878|publisher=Macmillan Journals ltd.|page=[https://archive.org/details/nature17unkngoog/page/n444 299]}}</ref> he could have been taken to the torture chamber and been shown the instruments, he could have been undressed as if in preparation to be tied to the instrument; without actually being tied, he could have been tied to the instrument of torture but not actually have it inflicted and finally he could have been tied to the instrument and tortured.<ref name=Finocchiaro>{{cite book|author=Maurice A. Finocchiaro|title=Retrying Galileo, 1633–1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVMy7yoGbdIC&pg=PA252|accessdate=30 August 2011|date=17 October 2007|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25387-2|pages=252–}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10252/10252.intro.php Retrying Galileo, 1633–1992] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513162036/http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10252/10252.intro.php |date=13 May 2008 }}. Ucpress.edu. Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref><ref name=Review/>
The process of being tied and led to the torture rack inside the torture chamber was a form of intimidation and was called ''territio realis'' as opposed to ''territio verbalis oder lexis'' which was the verbal threat of torture being made at the judgment hall. ''Territio realis'' as well as the actual torture session were called ''examen rigorosum''.<ref name=Review>{{cite book|title=The Contemporary Review|url=https://archive.org/details/contemoraryrevi00goog|year=1880|publisher=A. Strahan The Contemporary Review|pages=[https://archive.org/details/contemoraryrevi00goog/page/n698 688]–690}}</ref>
In the book ''Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe and Canada'' it is mentioned that fear was a factor in the process of torture and that there was a form of torture known as ''La présentation de la question'' or simply the "Question",<ref name="Maxwell"/> where the prisoner was led to the torture chamber and was shown the implements of torture. While at the chamber, sentence to full torture was pronounced but, immediately after, the prisoner was taken back to the prison cell, without actually having been tortured.<ref name="Criminal Justice">{{cite book|author1=John Hamilton Baker|author2=Louis A. Knafla|author3=Calgary Institute for the Humanities|title=Crime and criminal justice in Europe and Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YbdR23PqGkIC&pg=PA59|accessdate=30 August 2011|year=1981|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|isbn=978-0-88920-118-7|pages=59–}}</ref>
The torture chamber was specifically designed to evoke fear in the victims.<ref name="History of Torture Throughout the Ages">{{cite book|author=George Ryley Scott|title=History of Torture Throughout the Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tj7vbMmuvhYC&pg=PA66|accessdate=30 August 2011|date=10 March 2003|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=978-0-7661-4063-9|pages=66–67}}</ref> It was usually built underground and only dimly lit. Inside the chamber waited the executioner, his face completely covered apart from two holes in the garment to enable him to peer through and wearing a black hood; his menacing appearance being described as "most diabolical" and "satanic".<ref name="History of Torture Throughout the Ages"/>
When during the Question, the view of the chamber, the torture implements and the executioner did not cause the victim to confess, a full-scale torture session was planned. To prepare for torture, the victim was stripped naked with hands tied. The penultimate step to torture included a repetition of the questions asked earlier of the victims. If the victims still proclaimed their innocence, full torture was initiated.<ref name="Maxwell"/><ref name="History of Torture Throughout the Ages"/>
The most common instrument of torture was the ''strappado'',<ref name="Inquisition from Its Establishment"/> which was a simple rope and pulley system. With the pulley attached to ceiling of the chamber, the lifting rope was tied to the wrist of the victim, whose hands were tied behind their back. Subsequently, the victim was raised to the ceiling and then lowered using a jerking motion causing dislocation of the shoulder joints. To increase the suffering caused by the strappado, weights were attached to the feet of the victim.<ref name="Maxwell"/><ref name="Inquisition from Its Establishment"/>
Church doctrine protected human life so it was problematic if a victim were to die, especially before he or she confessed. In difficult cases, when a victim would not readily confess or was too weak to continue in an uninterrupted torture session, breaks were allowed between torture sessions because Inquisition regulations allowed only one torture session per victim. That way, a torture session could resume after a break to allow time for the victim to recover or reconsider his or her opposition to confessing, and it was considered to have been the continuation of the previous torture session and not a new one.<ref name="Maxwell"/>
Because confession under torture was not acceptable, the victim had to sign a written confession after making an oral confession under torture. Typically, during confession, the inquisitors demanded that the prisoner implicate as many people as possible and not only him or herself. If the prisoner resisted signing, the inquisitors could always resume the torture by claiming that they had just halted the session, just for the signing, but did not really put an end to it.<ref name="Maxwell"/>
==== Construction ==== thumb|300px|An artist's depiction of a Torture chamber of the Inquisition, ca. 1809 from Moore's Martyrology.<ref name="Ryley Scott">{{cite book|author=George Ryley Scott|title=History of Torture Throughout the Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tj7vbMmuvhYC&pg=PA66|accessdate=13 December 2011|year=2003|publisher=Kessinger Publishing<!--|ISBN=0-7661-4063-6 -->|isbn=9780766140639|page=67}}</ref>
The method of construction of the torture chamber of the papal palace at Avignon, used during the Inquisition, has been described as ingenious.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} The construction of some of the torture chambers at Avignon was based on principles of acoustics, specifically designed to muffle the screams and cries of the tortured.<ref name="Crétineau-Joly1863"/> The walls of the torture chamber recessed and protruded in a complementary fashion to the walls on the opposite side so as to reflect the screams of the victims locally, ensuring that their shrieks would not be carried to the exterior.<ref name="Crétineau-Joly1863">{{cite book|author=Jacques Augustin M. Crétineau-Joly|author-link=Jacques Crétineau-Joly|title=The poor gentlemen of Liège: the history of the Jesuits in England and Ireland for the last sixty years, tr., ed. by R.J.M'Ghee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2dsCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR127|year=1863|pages=127–128}}</ref> A chamber located above the main torture chamber had a dungeon with a hole near the middle of the floor through which, according to accounts, the tortured bodies of the prisoners were thrown into a cavity.<ref name="Crétineau-Joly1863"/> The chamber where the victims were being burnt was of circular construction and resembled the furnace of a glass-house with a funnel-like chimney at the top.{{cn|date=December 2022}}
There were secret staircases and hidden spaces which were used to overhear the discussions in the prison cells. The ceiling of the torture chamber was especially designed to muffle the cries of the victims. Inside the torture chamber, furnaces and grates were also present.<ref name="WalshLittell1841">{{cite book|author1=Robert Walsh|author2=Eliakim Littell|author3=John Jay Smith|title=The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8O5S6WBqNB0C&pg=PA202|year=1841|publisher=E. Littell & T. Holden|page=202}}</ref> Up to 1850 the chambers were shown to visitors after which time the ecclesiastical authorities of Avignon decided to shut them down. In a similar vein the torture chamber of the Spanish Inquisition in Lima, Peru had one metre thick walls so that the screams of the victims could not penetrate them.<ref>[http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19970501/12150763.html Spanish Inquisition: Preserving the dark chapter ASSOCIATED PRESS]{{dead link|date=March 2017 |bot=Dr.K. |fix-attempted=yes }}. Indianexpress.com (1 May 1997). Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref>
In Nuremberg and Salzburg the torture chambers featured trapdoors on their floors. In Nuremberg the room underneath the main torture chamber featured torture machinery while in Salzburg, the room under the trapdoor, functioned like a waiting room for prisoners. When the time came the prisoner was pulled up and into the upper torture chamber.<ref>{{cite book|title=Archaeologia: or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6V8VAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA243|accessdate=30 August 2011|year=1838|publisher=Society of Antiquaries of London|pages=243–}}</ref> Other times, deep water pits could be found under the trapdoor, where the victims of the torture chamber could be thrown, after a torture session, to drown.<ref name="Alger1889">{{cite book|author=William Rounseville Alger|title=The destiny of the soul: a critical history of the doctrine of a future life|url=https://archive.org/details/destinysoulacri00algegoog|accessdate=9 June 2012|year=1889|publisher=Roberts|page=[https://archive.org/details/destinysoulacri00algegoog/page/n443 425]}}</ref>
==== Palace of the Inquisition ==== [[File:Palácio da Inquisição no Rossio (cropped).png|thumb|300px|Palace of the Inquisition in Lisbon, Portugal]]
The torture chamber was the final destination in a progression of four cell types during incarceration at the Palace of the Inquisition. The palace contained the Judgement Hall, the offices of the employees, the private apartments of the Grand Inquisitor and the detention cells adjacent to the apartments. The detention cell gradations started with the ''cells of mercy'' reserved mainly for rich transgressors who upon bequeathing all their property to the Inquisition were normally let go after a time of detention in the cells.
For more difficult prisoners the next cell stage was the ''cell of penitence''. These were situated in small round towers of about 3 metres (ten feet) in diameter. They were painted white and included rudimentary furniture such as a stool and a bed. Very little light was allowed in. If the prisoner did not cooperate, the next step in the detention process was the dungeon. The dungeon had walls 1.5 metres (five feet) thick, double doors and was in complete darkness. No conversation of any type was allowed in the dungeon.<ref name="P and R"/> The food allowance for prisoners was less than a penny a day including the profit of the warden while any human refuse was removed every four days. After a stay in the dungeon, uncooperative prisoners were moved to their final destination: the torture chamber. {{cn|date=December 2022}}
====Palace of Inquisition in Cartagena==== thumb|180px|Entrance to the Palace of Inquisition at Cartagena {{main|Palace of Inquisition}} The Palace of Inquisition was a torture chamber in Cartagena, Colombia, built under orders of Philip III,<ref>{{cite book|volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2BZAAAAMAAJ |title=Baroque and Rococo in Latin America |year=1967 |publisher=Dover Publications |last=Kelemen |first=Kal |edition=2 }}</ref> which served as headquarters for the Spanish Inquisition. It was used to torture Jews<ref name="Jewish Nation">{{cite book|title=The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean: The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Settlements in the Caribbean and the Guianas |first=Mordehay |last=Arbell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T3t__sdb_SkC&pg=PA309 |page=309 |publisher=Gefen |year=2002 |isbn=9789652292797 }}</ref> and other non-Catholics.<ref>{{cite book|page=44 |title=Cruise Travel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NDADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44 |date=August 1982 }}</ref> Approximately 800 individuals were put to death there.
== Modern times == <!---need more precise title per WP:DATED--->
===Nazi Germany=== The traditional torture users of modern times have been dictatorship governments e.g. the Nazis,<ref name="Nazi Camp">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080329135446/http://www.europebyphoto.com/tours/fortbreendonk/fortbreendonk.html Fort Breendonk (Nazi Camp): Pictorial essay. Mentions local torture chamber via Internet Archive]</ref><ref name="Nazis">[http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/resource/document/DocJac08.htm Nuremberg Trials Opening Address for the United States Robert Jackson statement: (Nazi) Germany became one vast torture chamber]. Fcit.usf.edu. Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref> Argentine military junta (at the Navy School of Mechanics), and the Chilean dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet as well as other South American regimes.<ref name="Chicago Tribune">{{cite news|author1=Paul Salopek, Tribune Foreign Correspondent.|title=Torture Victims Tremble at Idea of Free Pinochet|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/02/08/torture-victims-tremble-at-idea-of-free-pinochet/|newspaper=The Chicago Tribune|date=8 February 2000|quote="They ran my torture chamber like an office, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.," said Padilla, who was a student activist at the University of Chile when the}}</ref><ref name="Lazzara2011">{{cite book|author=Michael J. Lazzara|title=Luz Arce and Pinochet's Chile: Testimony in the Aftermath of State Violence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bXHHAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|date=29 March 2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-11842-3|page=1|quote=Yet, traitorous and complicit subjects—both in the torture chamber and outside of it—are an undeniable part of the Pinochet regime's (1973–90) tumultuous history of state violence.}}</ref><ref name="Cypher">[http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit5/papers/cypher.pdf "Détournement as Civil Disobedience: Mash-ups, Re-Mixes and the Recontextualization of Sound and Images as Political Statements"] A Parapolitical-Cultural Essay by James L. Cypher Presented to the MIT Media in Transition Conference "Disruptive Practices" Session 28 April 2007 quote: ''The Sexy Blindfold" based on the 1970s Chilean secret police torture chamber underneath a discotheque, where the loud dance music drowned out he screams of the sexual chamber of horrors below.''</ref><ref name="Pinochet">Kenneth P. Serbin [https://web.archive.org/web/20090530014447/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_1_122/ai_n8703035/ Torture chamber: behind Pinochet's reign of terror]. Christian Century, 11 January 2005</ref> The isolation felt inside the Nazi torture chambers was so strong that author, and victim, K. Zetnik, during his testimony at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961, has described them as ''another galaxy.''<ref name="Vaknin2009">{{cite book|author=Sam Vaknin|author-link=Sam Vaknin|title=Abuse, Trauma, and Torture: Their Consequences and Effects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQszBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT86|date=14 January 2009|publisher=Narcissus Publishing|page=86|quote=The torture chambers are "another galaxy". This is how Auschwitz was described by the author K. Zetnik in his testimony in the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961.|id=GGKEY:NUWBB8W3KQW}}</ref>
===South America===
In Chile, during the Pinochet dictatorship, the use of converted locker-rooms and skyboxes as torture chambers has been reported.<ref name="Kornbluh2013">{{cite book|author=Peter Kornbluh|title=The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fJNnAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA42-IA2|date=13 December 2013|publisher=New Press|isbn=978-1-59558-995-8|page=42|quote=There are three sources of power in Chile: Pinochet, God, and DINA. ... in lockerrooms and luxury skyboxes that themilitaryhad transformed into torture chambers.}}</ref> The ''Esmeralda'', a training ship of the Chilean Navy had also been used as a "floating torture chamber" during Pinochet's dictatorship.<ref name="O'Shaughnessy2000">{{cite book|author=Hugh O'Shaughnessy|title=Pinochet: The Politics of Torture|url=https://archive.org/details/pinochetpolitics00osha|url-access=registration|date=1 March 2000|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-6201-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/pinochetpolitics00osha/page/122 122]|quote=... training ship which had been used as a floating torture chamber in the immediate aftermath of the 1973 coup.}}</ref> In 2011, protests erupted in Vancouver, Canada, upon a visit by the ''Esmeralda''.<ref name="North Shore News">{{cite news|author1=Benjamin Alldritt|title=Chilean torture ship visit ignites protest in North Vancouver|url=http://www.nsnews.com/news/chilean-torture-ship-visit-ignites-protest-in-north-vancouver-1.360624|publisher=North Shore News|date=3 August 2011|quote=Known as the White Lady, the four-masted barquentine is the second-largest sailing vessel in the world and an undeniably beautiful ship, but it carries with it a horrific past. Following the military coup in Chile in 1973, the Esmeralda was used as a floating prison and torture chamber by the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.}}</ref> In Santiago, Chile, ''Villa Grimaldi'', once a cultural center, was used as a torture centre which included torture chambers.<ref name="The Santiago Times">{{cite news|title=Chile's Villa Grimaldi remembers horror of Pinochet years|url=http://santiagotimes.cl/chiles-villa-grimaldi-remembers-horror-of-pinochet-years/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426134415/https://santiagotimes.cl/chiles-villa-grimaldi-remembers-horror-of-pinochet-years/|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 April 2022|newspaper=The Santiago Times|quote=At Villa Grimaldi, remnants of the cells and torture chambers exist alongside the foundations of the cultural center the building once was.}}</ref> A tour of ''Villa Grimaldi'' has been described as a "tour of barbarity" featuring exhibits with descriptive signs such as "Place of hangings", "Torture chamber", "Annex torture chamber", "Women's cells 1x1 meter", "The Grill: Electric Beds" and others.<ref name="Cooper2002">{{cite book|author=Marc Cooper|title=Pinochet and Me: A Chilean Anti-memoir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FaQCs8EAK-4C&pg=PA138|year=2002|publisher=Verso|isbn=978-1-85984-360-4|page=138|quote="The tower: place of solitary torture and extermination" . . . "Place of hangings" . . . "Torture chamber" . . . "Annex torture chamber" . . . "Women's cells 1x1 meter"}}</ref>
Michelle Bachelet, who later became president of Chile, was tortured in a torture chamber during the Pinochet years.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/20477050/From-Torture-Victim-to-President From Torture Victim to President] Britannica online Quote:"Lucrecia Brito shared the cramped cell with Bachelet. We could hear the screams from the torture chamber opposite our cell," Brito tells me.<br>[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/From+torture+victim+to+president.-a0144665529 alternate from Freelibrary]<br></ref> After the fall of Pinochet, the torture chamber victims and the relatives of the ''desaparecidos'' refused to strike a deal with Pinochet or with the politicians that followed him.<ref name="Macedo2004">{{cite book|author=Stephen Macedo|title=Universal Jurisdiction: National Courts and the Prosecution of Serious Crimes Under International Law|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a0WEKMuUYJMC&pg=PA229|year=2004|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=0-8122-3736-6|page=229|quote=Survivors of Pinochet's torture chambers and mothers of the disappeared did not make a deal with Pinochet, nor did they accept the bargain struck by politicians.}}</ref>
===Europe=== Use of torture chambers was also reported in Europe during the Greek military junta years (1967–1974).<ref name="ESA chambers">[https://web.archive.org/web/20090211184321/http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=13012&m=A13&aa=1&eidos=A "Past present"], ''Athens News'', 2 May 2003 quote: ''After weeks of gruesome interrogation in the infamous military police (ESA) torture chambers, Panagoulis was sentenced to death by a court martial on 17 November 1968.'' Article by Dimitris Yannopoulos ATHENS NEWS, 02/05/2003, page: A13 Article code: C13012A131 via the Internet archive</ref><ref name="Political prisoners">[https://web.archive.org/web/20090210171627/http://www.political-prisoners.net/home.php?id=9&lang=en&action=campaign V. International Symposium Against Isolation Greece / Athens, 15-18 December 2006 Political prisoners network] quote: 12.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m.: Commemoration and press conference at the EAT-ESA (EAT-ESA is a museum today, and it was used as a torture center of the gendarmery during the military junta)</ref><ref name="Reportage">[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=el&u=http://www.rwf.gr/386/%CF%83%CF%85%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%8D%CE%BE%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%82/%CE%B4%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B7%CF%84%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%AC%CE%B4%CE%B7%CF%82-%CE%BA%CF%89%CE%BD%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%82/ Reportage without frontiers from ET (Greek National TV)] Interview with Vice Admiral Konstantinos Dimitriadis Quote: ''The fai was filled with salt. Απειλές. Threats. Ορισμένοι μάλιστα υπέστησαν κι απειλές ηθικής τάξεως. Some even suffered threats and Ethic. Ότι οι γυναίκες τους και τα λοιπά και κάτι μονταρισμένες φωτογραφίες με σκάνδαλα να το πούμε έτσι. That women and the other something mounted photos with scandals to say. Με απειλές, με τέτοια πράγματα και υβρεολόγιο. With threats, with such things and profanity. Νυχθημερόν να παίζει κάποιο ραδιόφωνο. Nychthimeron to play a radio. Ένα ραδιόφωνο με διάφορα τραγούδια εκείνης της εποχής και τα λοιπά. A radio with various songs of the time and so on. Και μαγνητόφωνα με κραυγές για να σπάσει το ηθικό, ας πούμε. And tape with cries to break the morale, say. Αυτά και βέβαια ορισμένοι, δεν υπέστησαν όλοι με τον ίδιο τρόπο την μείωση αυτή. Those are certainly some, not all were in the same way to reduce this. Είχανε κάτι ζωστήρες. Eichane zostires something. Το κορύφωμα βέβαια ήταν του Μουστακλή ο οποίος χτυπήθηκε άσχημα και βγήκε εκτός ο άνθρωπος. The culmination of the course was Moustakli who severely beaten and got out of the man.''[''sic''] (Translation by Google)<br>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090211160841/http://www.rwf.gr/interviews_senaria-new.php?id=152&interview=1&interview_id=323 Original Greek interview through Internet Archive]<br>[http://www.rwf.gr/386/%CF%83%CF%85%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%8D%CE%BE%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%82/%CE%B4%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B7%CF%84%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%AC%CE%B4%CE%B7%CF%82-%CE%BA%CF%89%CE%BD%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%82/ Second link]</ref> Alexandros Panagoulis and Army Major Spyros Moustaklis are examples of people tortured at the EAT/ESA (Greek Military Police) interrogation cell units.<ref name="ESA chambers"/>
===Middle East=== Under his reign (1979–2003), Saddam Hussein reportedly tortured those whom he deemed as a threat. After the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces, pictures of dead Iraqis, with their necks slashed, their eyes gouged out and their genitals blackened, were located in many torture chambers.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/02/sprj.irq.iraq.torture/index.html Report: Iraq torture chamber found]. CNN (2 April 2003). Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref> Jail cells, with dried blood on the floor and rusted shackles bolted to the walls, lined the corridors.<ref>Kelley, Jack. (13 April 2003) [https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-04-13-saddam-secrets-usat_x.htm Iraqis pour out tales of Saddam's torture chambers]. Usatoday.Com. Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref>
In November 2004, U.S. Marines found a number of torture rooms in Fallujah by following trails of dried blood, or the smell of dead bodies. Some rooms were hidden behind fake walls, or concealed in basements.<ref>[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fallujahs-houses-of-horror/ Fallujah's Houses Of Horror]. CBS News. Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref> Libyans have entered abandoned torture chambers and found devices that have been used against opposition members in the past.<ref>[http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/03/20113122102545671.html Evidence of Libya torture emerges – Africa]. Al Jazeera English (1 March 2011). Retrieved on 2011-08-30.</ref>
===United States=== {{main|Enhanced interrogation techniques}} The CIA has been found to torture prisoners at black sites around the world.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/oct/09/cia-torture-black-site-enhanced-interrogation|title=Inside the CIA's black site torture room|newspaper=The Guardian|last1=Morris|first1=Sam}}</ref>
=== Russia === {{Main article|Bucha massacre}} In April 2022, evidence of the brutal mass rape and massacre by Russian forces of the residents of the Ukrainian town of Bucha came to light. Soldiers of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces said they had found eighteen mutilated bodies of men, women, and children in a summer camp's basement in Zabuchchya, near Bucha.<ref name="thetimes">{{Cite news |last=Ukraine |first=Louise Callaghan, Zabuchchya |title=Bodies of mutilated children among horrors the Russians left behind |language=en |work=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/bodies-of-mutilated-children-among-horrors-the-russians-left-behind-5ddnkkwp2 |url-status=live |access-date=3 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220403034451/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bodies-of-mutilated-children-among-horrors-the-russians-left-behind-5ddnkkwp2 |archive-date=3 April 2022}}</ref> Footage released by the Ukrainian army appeared to show a torture chamber in the basement.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 April 2022 |title=Ukraine says 'torture room' found after Russian troops withdrawal from Bucha |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-torture-room-bucha-b2050946.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407202948/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-torture-room-bucha-b2050946.html |archive-date=7 April 2022 |access-date=5 April 2022 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> One of the soldiers said that some of the bodies had cut-off ears or pulled out teeth, and that the bodies had been removed a day before the interview.<ref name="thetimes" /> Corpses of other killed civilians were left in the road.<ref name="WaPo02April">{{Cite news |last=Stern |first=David |date=3 April 2022 |title=Bodies and Rubble in the streets of Bucha following Russian retreat |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/02/bucha-bodies-russia-retreat-kyiv/ |url-status=live |access-date=3 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220402235535/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/02/bucha-bodies-russia-retreat-kyiv/ |archive-date=2 April 2022}}</ref> An investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty verified that the basement was used as an "execution cellar" by Russian forces.<ref>{{Citation |title=Inside An 'Execution Cellar' In Ukraine |date=5 April 2022 |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-execution-cellar/31787326.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407203455/https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-execution-cellar/31787326.html |language=en |access-date=5 April 2022 |archive-date=7 April 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>
== See also == {{col div|colwidth=30em}} *Black site *Extraordinary rendition *Iron maiden *Medieval instruments of torture *Palace of Inquisition *Psychological warfare *The Box (torture) {{colend}}
== Books == *{{cite book|author1=Joseph Anthony Amato|author2=David Monge|title=Victims and values: a history and a theory of suffering|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hu4rJYx79ZwC|accessdate=30 August 2011|date=November 1990|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-25903-6}} *Guida Billingue all mostra di Strumenti di Tortura Chamber dal Medioeve all Epoca Industriale. By Roberto Held. Florence, Qua d' Arno 1983.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Joseph Anthony Amato|author2=David Monge|title=Victims and values: a history and a theory of suffering|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ONAjG_Rh2hEC&pg=PA21|accessdate=30 August 2011|date=30 November 1990|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-93690-7}}</ref> *"The Iron Shroud" by William Mudford, a short story, published also as a chapbook, about an iron torture chamber which shrinks through mechanical action and eventually crushes the victim inside.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=aaVbAAAAQAAJ "The Iron Shroud"] at Google Books</ref> Edgar Allan Poe is considered to have been influenced by Mudford's story when he wrote ''The Pit and the Pendulum''.<ref name="BookRags p. 2">[http://www.bookrags.com/biography/william-mudford-dlb/2.html Online Biography of William Mudford from the Dictionary of Literary Biography hosted by BookRags] p. 2</ref><ref name="Critique of William Mudford">[http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/185/3/83-k Oxford Journals] Critique of William Mudford Notes and Queries July 31, 1943 p. 83</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Edgar Allan Poe|title=The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and Related Tales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8kffvLCqgAC&pg=PA298+|accessdate=30 August 2011|date=1 May 1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-283771-4|page=298 (note)|quote= Poe apparently got the idea for his shrinking chamber from an 1830 Blackwood's story titled the 'Iron Shroud'}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080329135446/http://www.europebyphoto.com/tours/fortbreendonk/fortbreendonk.html Fort Breendonk (Nazi Camp): Pictorial essay. Mentions local torture chamber] *Medieval Torture Museum in the cities of St. Augustine, Chicago and Los Angeles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torture Chamber}} Category:Torture Category:Rooms