What is an Iron Maiden?
Allegedly, the iron maiden, or Eiserne Jungfrau, was used as a medieval torture device in Germany. It consists of a large, roughly human shaped cabinet with viciously sharp internal spikes. The victim would be placed inside, and the doors slowly closed, so that the spikes impaled him or her, leading to intense discomfort. If fully closed in the iron maiden long enough, the victim probably would have bled to death, assuming that the spikes did not pierce a lung or another vital organ. However, the iron maiden’s history is under dispute, with numerous historians now believing that it is a hoax. Physical examples of iron maidens only date back to the late 1800s, and some historians have suggested that the device was never actually used during the medieval period, although a myriad of other unsavory methods of torture were certainly employed. The best example of an iron maiden was the Iron Maiden of Nuremburg, which was first displayed in 1892, shortly after is was built, and later destroy
