~ hanging cages ~

These tall iron cages were set up outside near a main crossroad, usually several in a row. This was very popular in Europe, before the end of the eighteenth century.

The naked or nearly naked victims were locked into the cages and hung up. They usually died of hunger and thirst, or in the winter by storm and cold, and in summer by heatstroke and sunburn; often they had been tortured and mutilated. The deceased bodies were generally left in place until the bones fell apart.