Torture chamber

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

Read on Wikipedia · Image Philips, Caspar Jacobsz. (1732-1789); after Picart, Bernard (1673-1733), Public domain