The Torture Chair

During the middle ages, there were numerous ways of extracting confessions or information from victims through the use of torture devices. Most of them were made to inflict physical pain but there was one device that inflicted both physical and psychological pain at the same time. That device was known as the Torture Chair.
There were many variants of the chair, but all of them had one distinguishing feature. Spikes covered the entire seat, from the arm rests, the back and the leg rests. It was not uncommon for these devices to be covered with anything from 500 to 1500 individual spikes.
The victims movement was severely restricted by having their wrists tied to the chair or in some variants, metal bars pushed the arms down on to the arm rests, causing the spikes to penetrate the victims flesh further. There were some variations where there were holes beneath the chairs set, where burning coal was used to cause severe burns while the victim remained conscious. Other versions included weights that were applied to the victims thighs or feet and there was even a special version of the chair where spikes were included in the head rest, so that the torturer could push the victims head against them.
The strength of this hideous device lies primarily in the psychological fear that it induced. A common practise, to extract confessions was to force the victim to watch as someone else was tortured with the chair.
The time it took to die varied from a few hours to more than a day. None of the spikes penetrated vital organs and all wounds were closed by the spikes, which delayed blood loss greatly.

Photo by Karl Fabricius

www.environmentalgraffiti.com