First Museum of Torture to Open Next Week

Croatia’s capital Zagreb is to expand its museum offerings next week when the first Museum of Torture in the country opens…

The Museum of Torture -Tortureum, which will open on 10 July at Radićeva 14, will offer visitors a view of a unique collection of torture and execution instruments from ancient times to today. More than 70 full-scale instruments and devices, which just the thought of drove fear into people, will be on display at the museum and present a picture of violence through the ages.

Visitors will be able to see, touch and try exhibits such as the full-scale replica of the 1792 guillotine with the 1889 Berger mechanism; pendulum – a swinging blade that descends lower and lower with each sweep; rack – one of the oldest instruments of torture; iron maiden, which is considered as the most brutal medieval instrument of torture; scold’s bridle, an instrument used to punish women accused of scolding and gossiping, as well as many other instruments that were used to humiliate, torture, injure or execute the victim.

Inside Tortureum, visitors will be immersed in a cabinet of wonders – a semidarkness in which the exhibits are bathing in discomforting sound environment. The specially designed multimedia guides with original audio and video content allow visitors to learn more about the history of each exhibited instrument of torture. The Museum is also unique for its Dungeon – a miniature cool room in which the visitor can spend a minute of his life in pitch blackness, anticipating the uncertain future.

The Museum’s aim is also to help visitors realize that our own increasingly vulnerable existence is daily subjected to various forms of visible and invisible torture, from school bullying and workplace mobbing to domestic violence, in order to make torture eventually become just a part of human history presented in a museum.

(photo credit: tortureum.com)