Florentine tortures

The Bargello, today a museum that houses one of the most important Renaissance collections of sculptures in the world, as well as a vast collection dedicated to the applied arts, was originally built as a residence of the Potestà in the 13th century. Subsequently it housed the Otto di Guardia e di Balia and later on the Council of Justice or Wheel. It was in fact, the office of the Florentine criminal court for over a century.
It was only in 1574 that it became the residence of the Captain of Justice, who was called "bargello".
Interrogations, torture and executions took place inside the building which was therefore equipped with cells for the condemned and the suspects.
The Palco dei Supplizi, where the executions took place, was set up in the courtyard. The bodies were displayed hanging by the windows upside down, as a macabre warning to the population.
Although Tuscany was the first state to abolish the death penalty at the behest of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena, in 1782; Florence was not immune to the practice of torture, an instrument with which for centuries the authorities tried to extort the "truth" from criminals.

An inhuman method that most of the time stole false confessions from the dying convicts. Ironically, confessions or admissions of guilt under torture were not accepted.
In fact, when the persons subjected to torture declared that they wanted to speak, the torture was suspended and they were left alone to speak without coercion. Clearly, if what the condemned had to say was not to the liking of the torturer, the torture was resumed.

In Florence the most practiced torture was certainly that of the "rope", which consisted in tying the hands behind the back of the investigated, which by means of pulleys, would be lifted from the ground. Imaginable, is what would happen at that point to the bones and muscles of the limbs of the wretched man or woman.
This torture could last for hours, during which weights were gradually added to the feet of the victim.
Another torture that raged on the limbs was the "ligatura", which consisted of tying the wrists tightening the rope more and more until it dislocated or broke the victim's arm.
Also widely used was the torture of the "tassilli", during which under the nails of the suspects were stuck splinters soaked in pitch and then set on fire.
Lastly, the "veglia" or “Judas cradle” was one of the most terrible. This torture consisted in lowering the victims on to a sort of pointed wooden pyramid, forcing them to sit down and thus ending up impaled.

They seem to come out from the worst of horror movies, but these types of tortures really existed, along with many others. Terrible practices, the mere thought of which provokes goose bumps. In comparison, the stories of ghosts and monsters that are told during Halloween seem just fairy tales for children...