Amsterdam's Museum of Tortures

The Museum of Tortures gave an overview of the various practices used throughout the centuries to gain information. Pretty gruesome stuff.

The rack would stretch the victim until muscles and ligaments tour and bones popped out of joint. :(
A hook would be shoved into the back and out through the stomach. The unfortunate person would be hoisted up while their last meal dripped down. D:
A cage containing rats would be placed on the person’s stomach. Hot coals would be placed in a brazier above the cage, causing the rats to burrow through the person trying to escape the heat. :O

The Spanish Inquisition was brought about to exterminate the enemy of the Catholic church, the Protestants. It lasted 300 years. The idea was to keep people in constant fear by randomly kidnapping people and putting them to the question. Any method of torture the inquisitor could think of was used to get the person to admit to being a Protestant. If the torture didn’t kill them, they would be burned at the stake. Towards the end, a Spanish general got the OK to list everyone as guilty of treason and put them to death. For some reason, the museum didn’t tell us the end of the story but I’m going to guess it didn’t happen considering the Netherlands still exist.

The Bubonic plague was also covered. Not sure why because even though having the plague sucked, it wasn’t a torture. Eh.
The first symptom was coughing. Next you’d vomit blood for several days. Then painful sours would cover your body. Eventually you’d die and be hauled off to the mass graves like thousands of others.
Doctors with beaked masks filled with flowers and perfume tried to care for the sick. Back then, it was thought the only way disease was spread was through bad air. The doctor’s assumed if they couldn’t smell the plague, they couldn’t get it. Because that is in no way true, the doctors would end up dying themselves.

The museum finished with a rollercoaster ride down to “Hell.” I’m terrified of rollercoasters and got shuffled on before I could get away. The attendant had to peel my hands off the safety bar at the end and help me out. A nice old man gave me candy to help calm down. So embarrassing.

Why couldn't school field trips go to cool places like this?