In the historic Andalucian city of Granada, the Palacio de los Olvidados hosts a fascinating museum about the Spanish Inquisition.
The Bull of Phalaris
Well, it’s inventive. You’ve got to give them that. The Bull of Phalaris looks initially like a fairly mundane metal sculpture of a bull. But then you see how it works. It’s hollow inside, with just enough room to fit a human.
And the poor soul that would get a good look around would be stripped naked, while a fire was lit underneath the bull’s belly – making it glow with incandescent heat. The shrieks and moans from the victim inside would come out of the bull’s nostrils, making it seem like the beast was bellowing. A lovely party trick, as long as you’re not the one inside the bull.
Torture devices in the Palacio de los Olvidados
This is one of many torture devices displayed inside Granada’s Palacio de los Olvidados. There are racks, spiky interrogation chairs and corkscrew-esque “head crushers” amongst the grim collection. But what makes this exhibition different from dozens of other torture chamber museums around Europe is that the focus is on who was doing the torturing rather than what they were doing.
When they go to Granada, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. But for a very long time, the Inquisition was a lot more than the butt of a Monty Python sketch.
The history of the Spanish Inquisition
Originally, the Inquisition wasn’t a Spanish thing. It was set up by the Catholic Church, and modified under several popes, in the 12th and 13th centuries. One of these modifications was allowing the use of torture, which the Spanish branch of the Inquisition embraced with gusto. Between 1481 and 1517 alone, 16,376 heretics were burned alive.
This is partly because it was a time of great upheaval in Spain. 1492 is best known as when Columbus discovered the Americas, but it was also the year that Spain expelled the Jews and reconquered Granada – the last holdout of the Muslim kingdoms that once spread across the south of the country.
How the Spanish Inquisition worked
With a lot of people being forced to convert or leave, it’s no surprise that these conversions were treated as suspicious. But it’s when the displays go into how the Inquisition worked that the reign of terror begins to make sense.
The Inquisitors, originally chosen by the Pope but later by the Spanish Crown, weren’t so much the problem as their ‘familiars’. These legal servants had a position of privilege, which was not sold cheaply. So to get back the money they shelled out to win the post in the first place, they’d have to get busy getting money from fines and confiscated goods.
Essentially, they had a vested interested in putting as many people through the courts as possible.
Torture and death as entertainment
And there was little public outcry because the auto de fé – where the guilty heretics had to embrace the faith before learning of their sentence – was designed to be a piece of bombastic public entertainment. Why would anyone want the fun to stop?
Alas, for those tried for heresy, there was not much fun at all. And the ground floor guillotines, water torture set-ups, garrotes and heavily spiked ‘iron virgin’ show just how unenjoyable it was. But in Granada, now everyone can inspect the Spanish Inquisition…
Visiting the Spanish Inquisition museum in Granada
The Spanish Inquistion exhibition is in the Palacio de los Olvidados. At the time of writing, entry costs seven euros.
More Granada travel
Elsewhere on Planet Whitley, you can read a guide to getting into the Alhambra’s Nasrid Palaces when tickets have sold out.
