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The iron maiden of Nuremberg (copy)
Historical sources tell us that this instrument was used in the Middle Ages, mainly in Germany. The prototype of this horrific contraption was found in Nuremberg Castle, where the Secret Tribunal of the city was located in the past. The condemned prisoner had to pass through seven doors while he was being led to the place of execution. At the end of a long corridor he found himself face to face with the instrument of death, a kind of iron wardrobe that vaguely reproduced the female form, with a double door in front that revealed its sharply pointed iron spikes as it opened.
The wretched victim was closed in the contraption and met an atrocious death. His remains were thrown into an underground channel leading to the river that flowed beneath the seat of the Secret Tribunal.
There is evidence that a similar instrument of death, located in the so-called “Street of the Maiden”, was used in Munich during the governorship of Prince Charles Theodore.
Provenance: Rome, former School for Prison Guards, 1934
