Sunday, October 27, 2013

The Inquisition Museum...or the Medieval Torture Museum of your Nightmares

As we continued through Cordoba, Spain and after the Sephardic Jewish history museum (which I will discuss in my next blog. There's just some reading I want to do about it first) we stumbled upon the Galeria de la Inquisicion. Thinking it might be a gallery of art, we decided to go in. It was open late and had a cheap entrance fee.

Little did we know, it was basically the Museum of Horrors. Practically the Victoria Wax Museum Chamber of Horrors, without the wax people. Or things that were fake. Or things that were not actually used to torture people.

Oh yeah, it was a museum of torture devices used during the Inquisition (not recreations, they were actually used), complete with pictures and explanations on how and why they were used.

And actually, some of these methods were used as late as the 1800s, so some of them aren't even technically Medieval! That is rather terrifying..

So here we go, the torture museum.

Or as this person put it, it was "The Killing Museum."




This blog is not for the weak stomached.  But it's kind of a "I saw this, so now you have to see it too" situation.
This is a chastity belt. These were not used during the Crusades, as legend would say, but began being used in the 1400's.



They had outwardly pointed teeth...
There's Adrienne's reflection, looking horrified at the chastity belt.
This is the Branks, which was an "artistic" form of torture, used to make the accused look fantastical, used from 1500-1800. These were usually used on women, using the phrase, "Let the Women be Silent in Church" as guidance for the punishment. They were women who went against the known traditions and conventions and were punished by wearing these and usually by having their tongues mutilated. They were then walked through angry crowds and eventually beaten to death.



This is the Iron Gag. It was placed around the neck and tightly secured, then that small hole allowed air for the person to breathe but muffled any of the screams. It was used so the accused would not interrupt any of the ceremony with cries of distress.

The interrogation chair.

Something that has been pointed out to me since publishing this blog is that most of the people depicted in the pictures are women.

It does make sense since women were considered carriers of evil (Darn you, Eve!) and were definitely chattel, so apparently they spent a lot of time being tortured. Also women were almost always the ones accused of witchcraft. Poor, poor women.

Women were considered evil because Eve tempted Adam, though as my mother said, "I would call the Adam/Eve incident a case of "Satan just happened to talk to her first."
This is the interrogation chair. It was a normal chair with 2000 spikes. The naked victim would be strapped to the chair with leather straps and then interrogated. If the interrogator was not happy with the answer to a question, he could push down on the accused person to increase the pain.
 This is sideways for some reason, but those are obviously whips.
Something that is clearly horrible. I know that it is horrible because there is a skull placed above it.

This is the head crusher.

The accused, aka the victim's chin was placed on the lower bar and the head shaped part was placed on top of the head.

Stop reading if you get squeamish.



According to the terrifying description on the sign, the teeth were crushed first into their sockets, followed by the surrounding bone. Then the eyes would pop out of their sockets, then the brain would squirt out of all the broken pieces of bone.

Luckily, according to the sign, this is no longer used as a means of capital punishment, but a softer version complete with cap and bar is still used to interrogate people, but is padded so it doesn't leave a mark on the person being interrogated. Good heavens, this is still being used!?!!!?! This is completely horrifying.

To quote "Ever After," "That is positively medieval!"


To the right is the guillotine.


This is the "Barrel of Shame," which people were placed in as a form of shame. Some were closed, so they had to sit in it for forever. Or it was open at the bottom and they would walk in shame around and be insulted and stoned.

It was used on people who drank too much alcohol.

Much more gruesome than the cone of shame.
The Garrotte, where the poor victim was placed in, with the metal ring around their neck. The ring was placed on a crank, which would be turned to slowly suffocate the person in the chair.

 A depiction of the Barrel of Shame.
The Strappado, which I don't think this one is, was just a rope that they threw over the rafters, then they would drop the victim down to dislocate or break all their bones.  Yikes
The real life version of Matilda's Chokey. It makes the Trunchbull look kind and lenient.

The axe was reserved for killing noblemen and kings, since it was a painless way of killing.
Judas' Cradle. Even the sign said it was a terrible form of torture. I don't even want to go into detail. Just look at the picture before to realize how terrible it was. And realize that feet were tied together to make sure the person could be easily moved around circles with that horrible pyramid in unthinkable places. They would be there for hours to days, depending on the person.

Another spiked chair, but this time they would place 2 dead corpses next to the chair to increase the torture.
Umm, yeah so this happened until the 1800's. According to the sign, this needs no explanation, except that people didn't lose consciousness until it reached the navel, or sometimes as high as the breast, because the brain got plenty of oxygen with the person upside down. The sign also said that it was worse than being slowly burned at the stake or being dipped in boiling oil.
There it is. The horrific saw. Remember that these devices have all been used.
This was the Straw Plait, used for women who had gotten pregnant before they were married. Their hair was chopped off and they were condemned to wear the straw hair at the doors of the main churches on holy days.
This is the Ladder Rack. It was used to stretch the person until their shoulders were dislocated. They were then burned with torches on their trunk and armpits. If the person still did not confess, then they were considered innocent.
 Saint Elmo's Belt, which was fastened around the stomach, which caused great injury to the person each time they breathed. It caused gangrene and other infections. Sometimes they would add carnivorous worms to the wounds.

Yes, worms.

Carnivorous worms.
It's another one of those horrible chairs!






Below the horrible pitchfork things is the Spiked Collar, originally intended just for torture, but eventually, due to inevitable infection, began being used as a capital punishment tool. A very slow and agonizing capital punishment tool

There is one that I will not put on here, because I refused to take a picture of it because it's horrible. It's called the Pear of Anguish. I can't even write what this was used for, because it's terrible. You can look it up for yourself if you are interested.

And that's the end of the horror museum. It will haunt you forever. I couldn't have it haunting only me, so this is for all of you. Just remember, all of these were used at some point during the Inquisition. They were not fake pieces.

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Mezquita of Cordoba, where nobody would stop photobombing


This will be a combination blog. The reason for this is that so many of my pictures from the Mezquita were photobomb pictures, it didn't make sense to put the photobombs into a separate blog. There are probably 5 normal pictures and the rest are people leaping by or looking ridiculous.

Alright, so we went straight to the Mezquita after eating lunch.

The Mezquita is so cool. It was originally a Christian Visigoth church built around 600, then was converted into a Medieval Islamic Mosque in the late 700's. Then in 1236, Cordoba was reconquered by King Ferdinand III in the Reconquista.  It was then converted it back into a cathedral by succeeding kings. However, they still kept the important Islamic architecture. including the Mihrab, and the cathedral is just placed in the middle. It makes for a fascinating building.


As Allison said, and I quote, "Visited what was first a church which then had a mosque built into it which then had another church built inside it: the immaculate inception!"

The grounds outside are really beautiful. Lots of palm trees and beautiful architecture and landscaping.

The museum includes a lot of old sections of the Visigoth church, which is pretty cool to see. You can see the Roman influence on their art.


The inside is really interesting. There's a clear mix of Islamic and Christian architecture.


The sea of columns


Part of the Christian section
The ceiling of one of the Christian sections








The Mihrab
The ceiling above the mihrab







Anna photobombing as usual.
The sea of arches again

Here I am photobombing my own picture
Adrienne cutting me in half

Adrienne looking surprisingly normal

Me photobombing myself again







Looking into the cathedral.
The organ


The Choir


A cow


A closeup of the woodwork in the choir
A rather scary bird
Some faces looking out

The ceiling
A lion and an angel lying down








St. Francis of Assisi

St. Ursula
Anonymously made in 1633.


A closer look of the Mihrab





The old Visigoth flooring.





The bell tower

Outside the walls of the Mezquita






Andd now to part two of this blog. The photobombs and the pictures that were taken just to annoy me.

Adrienne photobombing her plate with a fork and sunscreen.

Also my viking hat inside my purse is photobombing the picture.

Also it's possible Adrienne was just eating her food and I was bothering her by taking a picture.

Anna running in as Adrienne simultaneously jumps
So much jumping.
Anddd more jumping
Oh look a normal one, that's weird.
Allison taking a picture of me
Me storming off in a huff because nobody will stand still and take a normal picture or just not jump into my picture.
Oh look, that's better.
Jumping. Also I'm guessing that's Anna's arm

Sigh
So much ruining of the pictures.
Adrienne laughing at her "hilarity"
Anna laughing at her "hilarity"
Oh look a slightly normal one.
Oh and there she is jumping again.
This is where I thought, "Maybe I can hold her down and she'll look normal in a picture!"
Her response to my attempt to hold her down
Adrienne jumping, me looking on and Allison relaxing unknowingly in the back, reading Rick Steves.

"Stop taking pictures I'm not ready"
Allison crouching in the back
This is me, giving up on getting a normal picture of me or anyone in the mezquita and deciding to just take a picture of myself. My camera is enormous so it didn't work out very well.

Somebody's neck
I complain a lot about people jumping into my picture, but I got caught jumping into Allison's picture. Oops.

I've conveniently forgotten that I did that...
Allison isn't ready!
Ok a normal one, good...
Anna...
A great picture of Anna, but where's my head?
It was just never ending
We're not ready, stop that!



"Adrienne, where's my head?"
"Adrienne, why is it just my head?"
Nope, still not ready
And still not ready..

Adrienne, why is it just half my face?
Ok that's a bit better.
Anddd there's Adrienne again.

Adrienne singing instead of smiling

Attempted wrangling again
It's really not working
"She's gone limp!"
And I've given up



Dramatic dancing



Anna looks like a crazy person
Slightly less like a crazy person
Just blurs. Their photobombing is getting more dramatic
Spinning by to block my picture
Further spinning
"Move your feet!"
Since all the photobombing basically happened in the Mezquita, here are the last few photobombs from Cordoba.

Adrienne.
Adrienne wandering into my picture

I don't think I've ever seen anyone jump more than Adrienne in Europe in my life.
Your nose is nice Adrienne.
"I'm not ready, stop it!"
"Adrienne, where's half my body?"
"Stop! I'm just walking!"
"Adrienne, where's all the scenery."
More jumping in the synagogue.











Arms!
My payback. Unfortunately they look great walking away.

And that concludes the Mezquita and photobombing in Cordoba. Next up, the Sephardic Jewish history museum and the synagogue.

And the torture museum, not for the weak of stomach.