@xq`1ess placed commercial grain farmers at greater risk as grain prices fell in the 17th century. In the north, intensive agriculture supported the numerous large cities, but overexpansion onto unproductive land, soil depletion, and the loss of credit pushed the region to the limits of what the population could support. In the cities, wool manufacturing fell by 50 percent in the 1620s and all but disappeared thereafter, although silk production held its own. Commercial and banking activities, once the fastest-growing industries, now constricted, and foreign imports braked further development at home. Italy’s early industrial lead lost to increased competition from northwestern Europe as new products at lower prices replaced the traditional ones in the Italian markets. The Italian guilds’ opposition to technological and organizational change, higher taxes, and higher labour costs prevented the adaptability required to surmount the short-term crisis, which instead turned into a long-term structural realignment. Only in Lombardy was there a successful shift to the putting-out system, which transfered urban industries to the countryside.

The economic involution reinforced the social hierarchy, favoured investment in landed property and rents over commerce and industry, and reinvigorated noble pretensions. With capital shifted from the manufacturing and service sectors to agricultural production of cash crops such as olive oil, wine, and raw silk, the number of skilled urban craftsmen and merchants decreased while that of illiterate peasants increased, and landed-noble power intensified. The church reasserted itself in every aspect of social life, from land ownership to ecclesiastical organization, from the defense of orthodoxy and the culture of the Council of Trent to the education of the ruling class. As the economic crisis deepened, middling ranks lost out, and social stratification between rich and poor rigidified.

In the political sphere, Spain’s involvement in the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) and subsequent wars with other European powers—financed in part by taxes on its Italian possessions—drained Italy. As Spain declined, it dragged its Italian realms down with it. Revolts broke out in Palermo and Naples in 1647. In Naples a revolt of July 7 was mistakenly identified as a plebeian rebellion bearing the name of a young fishmonger, Masaniello, although he was murdered within 10 days and had actually been a tool of bourgeois elements seeking greater political power in the city. The uprising spread to the countryside, established a republic that sought French protection, and assumed the character of an open rebellion against Spain and native feudal lords. Internal dissension and the arrival of the Spanish fleet brought an end to the revolt by April 1648. The social and economic crisis deepened in Naples after the failure of the revolt and a recurrence of the plague in 1656. Lost was any hope of an alliance between the middle classes and the urban proletariat or rural masses against the landed aristocracy. Paradoxically, renewed Spanish reliance on the nobility of the robe fostered the very class that was to lead the cultural renewal that made Naples one of the intellectual centres of 18th-century Italy.

Reform and Enlightenment in the 18th centuryAfter the death of the last Spanish Habsburg, Charles II (ruled 1665–1700), fighting over the remnants of Spain’s European empire consumed the continent’s powers in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). The Treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714) inaugurated a new pattern of state relations in Italy between Austrian Habsburgs, Spanish Bourbons (with Bourbon France always in the background), and the independent states. After complicated military and diplomatic maneuvers, this pattern eventually stabilized into a long-term equilibrium. In the initial treaties, Naples, Sardinia, and Milan (which had incorporated Mantua after the last Gonzaga had sold it to Louis XIV in 1701) passed to the Austrian Habsburgs; and Sicily went to Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, who assumed the title of king of Sicily. Renewed Spanish hostilities, however, forced Victor Amadeus to cede Sicily to Austria in exchange for Sardinia in the Treaty of The Hague (1720). Spain acquired the duchy of Parma and Piacenza in 1731. In 1734, during the War of the Polish Succession, Charles, son of the Bourbon Philip V of Spain, conquered the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily from Austria. Spain had thus regained its two largest Italian possessions. After the Medici dynasty in Tuscany died out in 1737, Francis Stephen (Francis I)—duke of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, and Holy Roman emperor after 1745—ruled as grand duke of Tuscany from Vienna. And in 1748, after the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), Austria regained Milan, which it had lost more than once in the preceding years.

Society and economyA slow economic recovery began in Italy in the mid-1680s, but it remained weak into the early 18th century. A slump in the 1730s gave way to strong mid-century economic growth, until the famines of 1763–67 highlighted the weakness and inefficiency of government policies. Regional differences in Italy’s agricultural structure led to even greater divergences

~ 1 ~

between north and south. Whereas some northern urban industries found refuge in smaller centres and rural settings, the south came to rely economically almost exclusively on agriculture. Overall, Italy’s foreign trade decreased and its exports shifted from high-value manufactured goods to relatively inexpensive raw materials (including agricultural products) and semifinished goods, while it became a net importer of finished industrial products. At the same time, the Italian domestic market also contracted, and increasing social and institutional constraints further limited productive and mercantile opportunities. While Italy’s population between 1700 and 1800 rose by about one-third, to 18 million, that of the rest of Europe grew at twice that rate. Italy’s relative demographic and economic stagnation were to prevent an agrarian or industrial revolution during the 18th century.

Society and economyA slow economic recovery began in Italy in the mid-1680s, but it remained weak into the early 18th century. A slump in the 1730s gave way to strong mid-century economic growth, until the famines of 1763–67 highlighted the weakness and inefficiency of government policies. Regional differences in Italy’s agricultural structure led to even greater divergences between north and south. Whereas some northern urban industries found refuge in smaller centres and rural settings, the south came to rely economically almost exclusively on agriculture. Overall, Italy’s foreign trade decreased and its exports shifted from high-value manufactured goods to relatively inexpensive raw materials (including agricultural products) and semifinished goods, while it became a net importer of finished industrial products. At the same time, the Italian domestic market also contracted, and increasing social and institutional constraints further limited productive and mercantile opportunities. While Italy’s population between 1700 and 1800 rose by about one-third, to 18 million, that of the rest of Europe grew at twice that rate. Italy’s relative demographic and economic stagnation were to prevent an agrarian or industrial revolution during the 18th century.

The aristocracy retained hegemonic control of politics and economics, dominating land ownership and manipulating legal and political institutions in the towns to maintain their position. Tensions and conflicts arose from time to time between the central authority of the absolutist states and the nobility, between the rich bourgeoisie or professional classes and the nobility, and among the nobles themselves, but the nobility blocked, worked out compromises with, and co-opted these rival groups to preserve aristocratic predominance. In the north, especially in the republican states, city oligarchies resisted erosion of their power and privileges. In sharp contrast, the social and economic position of the urban masses and the growing rural population deteriorated, while the difficulties of daily life increased.

Political thought and early attempts at reformBy the beginning of the 18th century, a new cultural climate opened Italy to a wide range of European ideas—especially the philosophical thought of René Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, Benedict de Spinoza, Pierre Bayle, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, and Hugo Grotius. With it new cultural institutions came to the fore. The Academy of Arcadia, founded in Rome in 1690, exemplified the channeling of energies for rationalism and innovation. Among its more famous members, Gian Vincenzo Gravina, Ludovico Antonio Muratori, and Giambattista Vico gained renown by launching juridical, historical, aesthetic, and “scientific” critiques of society. Vico’s Scienza nuova (1725; The New Science), the most enduring work produced by this group, found tepid reception in its own day, and the author’s ideas on a universal philosophy of history won wide acceptance among Enlightenment thinkers only in the 1770s. Paolo Mattia Doria (1662?–1746) and the Medinaceli Academy in Naples also employed historical inquiry to seek remedies for society’s ills. Doria revived the idea of a Platonic republicanism of philosophic magistrates, in which an anti-Enlightenment Catholicism would become a kind of civil religion. In Naples he led his group of self-styled “ancients” against the scientific “moderns” led by the Neapolitan diplomat Celestino Galiani and Bartolomeo Intieri, a Florentine factor in Naples who provided a link to Tuscan intellectual circles. The ministerial class that developed in Spanish Italy from the early 16th century helped foster such networks of intellectual exchange between the cities of Italy and between Italy and the broader cosmopolitan centres of 18th-century Europe.

The political and cultural roles of the church—in particular, the supranational character of the papacy, the immunity of clerics from the state’s legal and fiscal apparatus, the church’s intolerance and intransigence in theological and institutional matters, as well as its wealth and property—constituted the central problems in the reform schemes of Italy’s nascent intellectual movement. The most incisive breakthrough came from Pietro Giannone (1676–1748), a Neapolitan jurist, who

~ 2 ~

employed a jurisdictional, historical method to oppose church abuse of power and to break the church’s stranglehold on the state. Probably the strongest arguments for church reform came from Enlightenment thinkers Francesco Scipione, marchese di Maffei (1675–1755), and Muratori (1672–1750), who sought to reconcile politics with morality and religion. Muratori’s Della pubblica felicità (1749; “On Public Happiness”) reached Bourbon audiences in French and Spanish translations and was probably read in the Austrian Habsburg realms by Maria Theresa herself.

Life in Italy from Baroque to NapoleonMilan - Triumphal Arch in Napoleon's HonorAs the Italian Renaissance spread throughout Europe, the next wave of innovation in art, culture and science was emerging. The 17th and the 18th centuries in the history of Italy are considered part of the early modern period. However this period, at least the first half, is often closely associated with the dominant artistic and architectural movement known as Baroque.

This time also was marked the beginning of long foreign domination of Italy in the aftermath of the Italian Wars of the 16th century. After these wars were over, the Italian landscape was peaceful for a long time. The Renaissance in Italy was over by 1600 but Italy still made up a large portion of the European economy. However, the economic power of the country as a whole declined and none of the various Italian states did anything concrete to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution.

Death from PlagueFrom the 14th century until the late 17th century, Italy suffered a very high death toll from various outbreaks of the plague. These are often referred to as Black Death and associated with medieval times; however the plague did not end in the 14th century. The largest death toll had been in the early 1600s when an estimated 1,730,000 people died due to plague in Italy. This was almost 14% of the population of the country at that time. Around 1629, the plague in the northern parts of the country, especially in Venice and Lombardy experienced very high death tolls. Towards the end of the 16th century almost 50,000 people had died of plague in the city of Venice alone. In 1656 around 300,000 people in Naples, this was half the population of Naples at that time.

Baroque Art and ArchitectureItaly as a country had not been influenced much by the Protestant Reformation and the church was still a powerful force within the country. The Catholic Church suppressed much with the use of the inquisition but Italy did contribute to the fields of art and science during this period.

The Renaissance had seen an outburst in the fields of art, music, culture and architecture. After the Council of Trent, a new artistic style emerged from Italy known as Baroque, which is known for its emphasis on emotion and movement. It was a movement designed to attract the senses more than the mind with artists like Caravaggio and Guercino helping to pave the way for a larger European artistic movement.

The Italian Baroque style of both art and architecture is best exemplified in the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which can still be admired among his many works in Rome. Baroque architecture was heavily influenced by classical elements as well as the achievements of the Renaissance. The interior of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome as well as the impressive colonnades of St. Peter’s Square is the work of Bernini. These elements blend seamlessly into the massive dome, designed by Michelangelo and would inspire further Baroque developments.

Baroque Music and TheatreThe era of Italian Baroque was the birth of opera as a major form of entertainment. Unlike the plays popular up to this time, opera combined music and theatre into a spectacle that was designed to be a feast for the senses. The origins of opera are credited to a Late Renaissance group of poets, musicians and humanist known as the Florentine Camerata.

Friday the 17th (Italy)In Italian popular culture, Friday the 17th (and not the 13th) is considered a day of bad luck.[16] The origin of this belief could be traced in the writing of number 17, in ancient Latin: XVII. By shuffling the digits of the number you can easily get the word VIXI (I lived, hence now I'm dead) omen of bad luck.[17] In fact, in Italy, 13 is generally considered a lucky number.[18] However, due to Americanization, young people consider Friday the 13th unlucky as well.[19]

~ 3 ~

The 2000 parody film Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth was released in Italy with the title Shriek – Hai impegni per venerdì 17? ("Shriek – Do You Have Something to Do on Friday the 17th?")

Health in the 17th centuryVery little was known about hygiene in 17th-century England. People were not aware that disease was spread by germs which thrived on dirt. They did not think of washing their hands before eating or cleaning the streets, so diseases could spread quickly. People dreaded catching malaria, which they thought came from a poisonous gas called 'miasma' from sewers and cesspits. Doctors still believed the ideas of a Greek physician called Galen. He thought that the body was ruled by four humours, or fluids, which determined what your personality was and how you reacted to various diseases. The four humours were : Blood/Sanguine - hot : fiery personality Phlegm - cold : calm personality Yellow bile - dry : bad-tempered personality Black bile - moist : melancholy personality

What sort of cures were available in the 17th century?Chinese people had been using plants for medicinal purposes for 4500 years and some of these had been brought to Europe. Many domestic plants, such as foxglove and marshmellow, were also used to cure illnesses. As well as these, doctors believed in the power of powders said to be made from strange ingredients such as horn from the mythical unicorn, and bezoar stone (recently made famous in J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter books), which was claimed to be the tears of a stag turned to stone. Live worms, fox lungs (for asthma), spiders' webs, swallows' nests and the skulls of executed criminals were also highly sought after ingredients.

Why did doctors use leeches?Leeches are a type of slug-like worm, used for thousands of years to reduce blood pressure and cleanse the blood. A leech placed on the skin will consume four times its own weight in blood, and with the blood the toxins that produce diseases. While the leech is sucking it releases a chemical called hirudin, which prevents coagulation, or clotting of the blood. Fevers were thought to be the result of too much blood in the body: doctors deliberately cut veins or used leeches to release this 'bad' blood.

What was Nicholas Culpeper's contribution to medicine?In England, herbal treatment reached its peak of popularity with the publication of the Herbal of Nicholas Culpeper (1616–54), a book also called the English Physician. Culpeper linked each plant or herb with a sign of the zodiac, and although his theory is not believed now, many plants he described and illustrated really did help to cure illnesses. The herb wintergreen, for example, contains salicin, a natural form of the painkiller aspirin.How else were advances in medical treatment made?

Some advances in medicine came about through treating soldiers and sailors on the battlefield. A Frenchman named Ambroise Pare discovered that the best way to treat a wound was not to put boiling oil on it, as had previously been the practice, but instead to apply a cold lotion made of egg yolk, oil of roses and turpentine. New drugs which became popular included tobacco, coffee, tea, and chocolate: all of them were first used as medicines!

Was it easy for scientists to investigate the human body?No. The church in medieval times forbade dissection, the cutting open of dead bodies. This made it difficult for doctors to learn about the working of the human body. However, in 1543, a surgeon called Vesalius of Brussels published his own illustrated medical manual called The Fabric of the Human Body. This was the result of his own secret dissections, and the illustrations were so accurate that it became a very important guide for doctors and surgeons. Even so, progress was slow and many people had to suffer horrible 'cures' and medicines.

~ 4 ~

Were any important discoveries made in the 17th century that helped improve doctors' knowledge?In the 1620s an Englishman named William Harvey, who had studied at the great Italian medical school in Padua, discovered that blood circulates around the body, the heart acting as a pump with valves to control the flow. King Charles I encouraged Harvey's efforts after seeing his work. King Charles II, who came to the throne in 1660 after the death of Cromwell, was also interested in everything scientific, including medicine.

In 1661, a chemist called Robert Boyle published a book called The Sceptical Chemist, which described how the body takes in something from the air to breathe. Boyle also established that without this important gas, which we now know as oxygen, animals and birds would die. In 1662, Charles II granted a Royal Charter to the Royal Society and this encouraged scientists to attempt new experiments. However, despite such promising developments, many superstitions were still accepted as truths in the 17th century.What superstitions did people believe?

Some women who treated people with herbs and potions were accused of being witches and put to death by hanging or drowning. Another superstitious belief was that the king had power to cure people of the 'King's Evil'. This was the name given to scrofula or surgical tuberculosis. The king gave the 'Royal Touch' on the neck near a gland, and gave the sufferer a 'touch piece' or gold coin. This custom dated back to the time of Edward the Confessor. Charles II may have 'actually touched on average 4000 persons a year.'Why was the Great Plague so devastating?

In 1665, a plague ravaged England. Lasting from June until November, it reached its peak in September, when in one week 12,000 people in London died, from a population of around 500,000. The king and his court fled to Oxford, but a doctor named Nathaniel Hodges remained in London to fight the disease. He fumigated houses with smoke from resinous woods, suggested rest and a light diet, and relieved fever by giving his patients Virginian snake root. Although his favourite powders were made from bezoar stone, unicorn horn and dried toad, he found these of no use. He himself sucked lozenges with ingredients of myrrh, cinnamon and angelica root. Though none of his medicines would have been of any use, he successfully survived in London without contracting the plague.

By the end of the 17th century, a more clinical and scientific approach to health, based on actual observation, gradually began to appear. This laid the foundations for the much greater progress that was to be made in the next century.

Places of Torture in ItalyBefore describing and discussing the scariest and creepiest places of torture in Italy, let us create some background to, well... the discipline.

It really seems that torture is as old as the history of Man: its first signs appear within one of the most advanced of all ancient civilization, the Egyptians, who would use methods of punishement as flogging and beatings with sticks to scare, punish of force a confession out of the victim. However – and it is here that Italy comes into the picture – it was really with the Romans that things took a turn for the worst: it is certainly not a case that the very term torture comes from the latin verb torqueo, which means to twist one's body.

In Rome, torture was inflicted, at least initially, to slaves, but it spread eventually, during the Empire, to all forms of enemy and criminals. It became, in fact, an entirely legal instrument, often used to force a confession, which was necessary, according to Roman law, to formulate a conviction. Flogging using a whip with multiple ox-leather strands was the most common method, even though fire branding was also very popular. Under Constantine (306-337), forcing melted lead in the throat of a criminal was a commonly used as a punishment. And, of course, we cannot forget the most famous of all Roman torture methods : crucifixion, which would bring, eventually, to an excruciating death caused by dislocation of the limbs and suffocation.

~ 5 ~

So, yes: the Roman were certainly on top of their game when it came to inflicting pain, but with the dawn of the Middle Ages, things took a turn for the worst (or best, depending on the point of view, of course). After centuries during which the main legal systems used in the country were those of "barbaric" populations (who, it may be interesting to note, did not employ torture), the 12th century saw the renaissance of Roman Law, which also brought torture back into legality. Torture so, just as it had happened during Imperial dominion, was employed both as a punishment and to extort confessions. Techniques were varied, but the most common was the rope, through which the victim would have his or her wrists tied with a rope, through which the body was lifted into the air and then let fall to the ground from various heights, causing the dislocation or the breaking of limbs and bones. Hot tongs were used to rip flesh and water was often forced down a victim's throat in enormous quantities, to the point of not only causing discomfort, but also the potential burst of internal organs and, as a consequence, death.

Truth is, however, that up to the 16th century, torture in Italy was practiced only seldom and for only specific cases, first among them, to punish heretics. And it was, in fact, against heresy, that torture in Italy (and in the world, truly) became commonly used. It was, as we said, the 16th century, and torture became an everyday event through the hands of the Holy Inquisition. The Roman and the Spanish Inquisitions were possibly the most bloodthirsty: between 1542 and 1761, for instance, the Roman Inquisition send to the stake 97 people, including the enlightened philosopher Giordano Bruno, today considered a father of human modern thought, as well as Galileo Galilei, who saved himself because accepted to deny his beliefs (namely, that the Sun, not the Earth was at the centre of the Solar System).

Things started to change with the inception of Illuminism. Cesare Beccaria, in his Trattato dei Delitti e delle Pene, condemned torture as a too cruel and ultimately useless method. The first country in Europe to repudiated torture was Prussia, in 1740. Shortly after, in 1789, the success of the French Revolution underlined the essentiality of human rights, even for those individuals suspected of a crime. However, protecting the State won over ideals and, shortly aftewards, in the 1800s, France started to use, albeit in secret, torture again.

The 20th century has been the century of the World at War: no wonder then that torture was employed largely and with horrific results. This is so close to us in time and space, it may not need to be discussed: we may just need to take up again one of our High School history books, or watch the Discovery Channel and the news to remind ourselves of how close these actions are, still, to us.

The Most Common Forms of Torture

We read that torture has a long history, but certainly it was in the Middle Ages that it enjoyed its heyday. Some of the most common Medieval torture methods were inventive and certainly scary to think of. Let us take a look.

Tying: this form of torture was used especially against women and gipsies: their long hair were tied to a large pole, which was then turned around. The excruciating pain caused by it was only the beginning, as often the entire scalp was actually ripped off the victim's skull.

The Virgin of Nurnberg: one of the most famous of all Medieval torture instruments, also known as the iron maiden (yes, that is were the band took their name). The victim was forced to enter a sarcophagus-like box, entirely covered with blades. When the sarcophagus was closed, the victim was pierced throughout and died a slow and painful death by blood loss.

The Wheel: the Wheel was used in the Middle Ages as a capital punishment method. The criminal was tied, his face looking up, to a wheel, while the executioner would beat him or her up with a heavy stick, breaking all the bones in the body. Very often, the last, fatal blow was inflicted out of mercy upon the victim's breast bone, a quick way to certain death.

Crucifixion: possibly the best known form of torture, it was particularly popular in Roman times. As we all know, the victim had his feet and hands nailed to a cross, which was often placed upside down (Saint Peter was, in fact, crucified this way).

Boiling: yes, you read it right. In the Middle Ages, you did not only boil your vegetables, but also people. The victim was placed in a large container and literally boiled to death. The end would come slowly and painfully indeed.

Skinning: the victim was decorticated while still conscious and vigilant. There is not much to add to this description. Ouch. ~ 6 ~

Impaling : made famous by the historical figure that inspired Bram Stoker to create his Dracula, the Count Vlad III of Walachia, this torture form consisted in placing a sharp pole in the victim's rectum, then forcefully pushing it out of his or her mouth or skull. Certainly one of the most gruesome and painful forms of torture.

The Most Gruesome Places of Torture in Italy

Because of the presence of the Roman Empire first and the Inquisition then, torture in Italy has been certainly largely practiced. After our brief historical excursus on the development and types of torture forms, we may now take a better look at actual places of torture in Italy, some of which you can visit, too, in case you are interested and would like to add a morbid thrill to your vacation.

Cesena and the Rocca Malatestiana

The building, which went through several reconstructions and whose appearance today is that of its last modification, wanted by Galeotto Malatesta in 1380, is not only known for its historical role as an essential post of the Malatestas' power, but also because, within its walls, there are some spooky rooms. If you walk through its corridors, you will come across one in particular, called Il Corridoio del Pozzo (the corridor of the well), so called in name of a grill along its walls which overlooks what is thought to be the infamous Pozzo dei Rasoi (the well of blades). This was a well filled with sharp razor-like blades, where victims were thrown and suffered a slow, painful death. A less horrifying use of the well has been advanced, too: it may have been the entrance to a secret passage used to escape from the castle in case of attack. Truth is, neither of the versions has been proven, so the doubt – and eerieness – remains.

You may be glad to know this is not the only scary place of torture within the walls of this famous Malatesta's residence. Another corridor here is aptly named Corridoio dei Fantasmi (the corridor of ghosts), which has been, so it is said, background to several paranormal events. From it, visitors can access a semi-circular room, called la Sala delle Torture (the hall of tortures). This room is entirely underground, so that the screams of its guests could not be heard.

Scary and spooky indeed.

The Abbazia di San Mercuriale and the Piazza delle Esecuzioni Capitali (Forlì)The Abbey of Saint Mercuriale, in Forlì, was once outside of the town walls, near to the Christian cemetery. Today, however, the abbey is located at the very heart of this Romagna town, in Piazza Saffi. The abbey is remembered as the location of medieval executions, during which hundreds of people would gather to assist to the deadly spectacle. It was not unusual – and not only during the Middle Ages, but also in much more recent centuries – to consider executions as a fun moment to witness. Authorities also felt that taking part to an execution as a spectator may be an edifying moment for the citizens, faced by the inevitable end of those who refused to follow the law.

We may like to mention that, up to the 18th century, when the guillottine was invented, executions were carried out with an axe, which made for a less that clean way to kill. It was essential, to avoid excessive suffering to the criminal, to severe the head with one single, sharp strike. Needless to say, this failed to happen most of the time, which made for some extra shedding of blood and suffering very much enjoyed by the public, always happy to enjoy some more healthy gore. Apparently, some Tommaso di Ser Filippo received 14 (yes, fourteen) axe strikes before dying and another unfortunate, a certain Brunini, had to be finished with a knife: this particular case was so ugly that people ran away in disgust from it. If you are travelling in the area and enjoy this type of thing, Forlì offers a Forlì Noir Tour, which also touches the area of the Abbey.

The Church of San Domenico in FerraraAlways in Emilia Romagna is the beautiful city of Ferrara, home to the powerful medieval family of the Este. In it, is the church of San Domenico, considered the "church of the Inquisition" in the city. Ferrara has kept track religiously (it is really the case of using this adjective) of all those sentenced to death during the years of the Inquisition: the Libro dei Giustiziati, the book of the executed, is kept in the Biblioteca Ariostea di Ferrara. The document contains more than 850 names. There is something peculiar about the book, though: persecution was mostly active againts heretics and the most famous of them all

~ 7 ~

were certainly witches. However, only 22 of the 853 names in the book are females. In the end, the majority of the heretics and criminals were, indeed, men.

The Church of San Giorgio in Lemine in Almenno San Salvatore (Bergamo)

We are now in Lombardia, more precisely in the province of Bergamo. This church, located in a relatively isolated countryside area, became famous in the 15th century for the presence of a confraternity called i Disciplinati, literally the disciplined, who dedicated themselves to prayer and self punishment. Self punishment very often took, in those centuries, the same form and shape of torture: flogging was among the most common practices followed by the Disciplinati. Apparently, their aim was not only expiating their sins through physical pain, but also heighten their perception of God and Christ by experiencing in first person the same physical pain He endured. The place were these self inflicted form of torture was usually carried out was, indeed, the portico of this church, today no longer extant. However, we are pretty sure eerie vibes and fearful sighs are still audible, if you pay close attention.

Another place were this confraternity practiced their rituals was at the Oratorio dei Disciplini, in Clusone, always in the Bergamo province of Lombardia.

Church of San Marco in Osimo and the Pozzo delle LameAnother place of torture is in Osimo, near the city of Ancona, in the Marche region of Italy. Here, the Church of San Marco is said to have once been the unfaithful location of a pozzo delle lame, a well of blades just as the one mentioned in relation to the Rocca Malatestiana of Cesena, where people would be thrown to be tortured and, after a long agony, would eventually die. (Un)fortunately, there no longer is any physical evidence of the well, as the church went through several rounds of renovations throughout the centuries. However, documentation seems to show it used to be in the underground cells that used to be located underneath the sacresty.

The Castello di Spilamberto (MO)Back in Emilia Romagna, and more precisely in the Modena province, is the Castle of Spilamberto, a 13th century fortress, adapted to residence in the 15th. There is a tiny room, in this castle, whose story and discovery could well make it in the plot of a chilling horror movie. During the 1940s, the residence underwent some restoration works and it is only then that builders came across a a small room, walled and hidden under the main stairs of the castle's tower. Its existence was unknown to the owners. The minuscule cell, only about 1 metre and half in length and width and reaching 2 metres only at its highest point (in feet, we are talking about 4 feet in length and width and 6 at its highest), was very likely used as a prison and a torture chamber. What happened within is not known, but the size itself seems to be a form of torture enough. The four walls of the cell are covered in drawings and writings of its inhabitant: a man called Filippo il Diavolino, very likely inprisoned there because of a woman. He, it seems, spent three to four months segretated here and wrote his story with, you guess it, his own blood.

La Stanza dei Tormenti di Narni, Umbria

Narni is a lovely town in the hilly central Italian region of Umbria, known for a recent discovery, imbued in mystery, that well fits into our discussion on places of torture in Italy. In 1979, six members of the village speleological group found, under the remains of an ancient Dominican convent, a wall with a small passage covered with debris and bushes. Excavations began and, after 15 years of work, the once secret underground maze of Narni was finally open to the public.

One of the chambers discovered is a 12th century chapel dedicated to Saint Michael, which has been consecrated again in 2000. Nearby is an even older room, carved directly into live stone, which turned out to be a Roman water cistern.

It is, however, behind a small, walled door, that the most disturbing of the discoveries was made: behind the door, a long corridor lead the first visitors to a large hall, whose name, la stanza dei tormenti (the chamber of torments) has been found in the documents related to this monastic complex kept in the Vatican Archives. From the room, a tiny door enters a small, claustrophobic cell, were prisoners were kept, awaiting their destiny of torture, its four walls covered in words, sentences and graffiti, witness to the pain and the fear of an unknown number of people. It is thanks to these graffiti that we know today

~ 8 ~

that particular cell – and we believe, the torture chamber annexed to it– was used especially for the prisoners of the Inquisition.

Another frightening story to tell on Halloween night, right?

Throughout its history, Italy has been home to places of torture where evils of such magnitude took place that their painful energy can still be breathed in. Those we mentioned in this article are open to the public and certainly make for a thrilling adventure, as well as an interesting socio-historical sight. Places of torture in Italy all belong to the past, as we know that, luckily enough, inflicting pain as a form of punishment or extortion is no longer legal in the western world. However, we are well aware it is not so in many other parts of the world, and we only need to tune on the news to hear about it.

To us, it may be even more frightening, though, the idea that torture per se, has happened in Italy and Europe to unconceivable extent not much longer than 70 years ago, during the last World War.May visiting places of torture from a distant past, in Italy, as in any other country, not only provide a thrill to us, but also help us to remember how close pain and injustice still truly are.

Cult of the Dead and Burial Methods in the History of Italy

The months of October and November are peculiar: Summer is, in most of the country, a distant memory, yet, the light and brightness brought by winter snow still have to come. These are weeks characterized by the first, true cold of the season, the early setting of darkness, the scents – if you live in the countryside, that is – of damp earth and fallen leaves. Nature, in October and November, puts on her rich autumnal cloak, heavy with red, orange and golden embroideries. Sometimes, when thinking of such settings, it comes as no wonder that this time of the year has been, since the beginning of times, consacrated to the special care and worship of the departed: muffled sounds, dramatic, yet slightly melacholic colors, the fact itself that nature is in the process to put itself to sleep for the winter, all appear to point at a human necessity to think of the Great Beyond.

This feeling, indeed, this human necessity, has been typical of all ages and cultures: today, we can still gather information about how important the cult of the dead was in the past through an analysis of how people would care and bury them. Because of how fundamental and rich in different cultures and habits the Italian Peninsula has been since prehistory, the country offers, still today, a plethora of examples related to how the dead were treated, buried and worshipped in ancient times. So, let's take this curious trip into the cultural and anthopological history of Italy.

Burial Methods in Ancient Italy: A General Introduction Since the dawn of civilization, the cult and worship of the dead has been central to the spiritual growth of each civilization. Archaeology has demonstrated that two types of burial practices were used in Italy in ancient times: cremation and inumation, just like today. Both practices were widely spread all over the civilized world, and often were used contemporarily, as it happened for the Romans, who both cremated and buried their dead.

Cremation was used by the Etruscans, the Greeks, the Romans and also by the ancient Pre-Colombian people of the Yucatan peninsula. Because fire was considered a puryfing means, cremation was thought to cleanse the soul of the deceased from all forms of material desires. This was often mirrored by the symbolic breaking of material objects, such as weapons or crockery, which were then left in the burial area.

Inumation was favored by the Egyptians, the Incas, the Maoris and Pre-Colombian people of Peru, in particular the Jivaros. It was also used by Middle Eastern civilizations such as the Babylonians and the Assyrians. The habit of burying the whole body of the deceased was based on the belief that eternal life could only be achieved if the dead could use what had helped temporal life: food, servants, clothes and, above all, the body itself. For this reason, it was often treated to be preserved as long as possible (think of the mummies).

~ 9 ~

Regardless to whether cremation or inumation was chosen, the general idea was that the dead demanded proper care and, if that was not given, they would quite happily come back to this world to haunt their relatives and families. Fear, then, as well as love, moved people to worship the souls of their loved ones.

The Earliest Times: The Proto-historical Necropolis of PantalicaThe Necropolis of Pantalica, in the Syracuse province, is one of the most relevant proto-historical (that is, of a civilization whose culture is still between prehistory and history, hence hasn't produced any written material, yet, but the existence of which has been noted in writing by already litterate civilizations) sites in Sicily. Pantalica represents an essential link to understand the dynamics of transition between the Bronze and the Iron Age on the island, and it's by far the largest indigenous site found on its eastern part. Because of its location, archaeologists attributed it to the Siculi, one of the many Pre-Roman people inhabiting the country. It was, very likely, created between the 13th and the 7th centuries BC. What strikes immediately is the fact that nothing of the living settlement of Pantalica is left: this is because, very likely, huts and homes were built with perishable materials and didn't survive the passing of time. Its necropolis, however, is another pair of hands: the Siculi of Pantalica left us more than 5000 tombs excavated straight into the rock of canions formed by the rivers Anapo and Bottigliera. It's a grandiose, breathtaking piece of history, which has become part of the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005.

The first archaeologist to hold an excavation in the area was Paolo Orsi, whose work unhearted several beautiful artefacts, kept today in a museum dedicated to him in Syracuse. The necropolis developed all along the rocky walls of the area, each section belonging to a particular time in the history and development of the Siculi civilization. On the summit of the plateau along which the tombs were created, lay the foundations of a grandiose structure, built with megalithic blocks: the archaeolgists who discovered it called it the Anaktoron or "The Prince Palace." Interestingly, these particular remains helped historians to learn more about the Siculi and their potential connections with other Mediterranean cultures: it seems, in fact, that the type of technologies and knowledge used to create the Anaktoron were far superior to those largely known by indigenous people, which may point to a potential interaction between the Siculi and the Myceneans from Greece. The necropolis, along with the beautiful valle dell'Anapo nearby, can be visited through several different itineraries. The best of them, especially if archaeology is of interest to you, is the one starting from Ferla and the Stretta di Filiporto, which'll lead you through the necropolis up to the Anaktoron. If you rather drive, you can follow an itinerary that reaches all most relevant points of the necropolis by car. If you're a trekking enthusiast, you should check out the many hill paths running through the necropolis, which also lead to interesting bizantine time settlements. Closer to Rome: The Etruscan Necropolises Etruscans worshipped their dead and had an enormous respect for the afterlife. It's for this reason, common to all civilizations and individuals, that the need to guarantee proper burial to the deceased originated. It was also essential for them to provide the deceased with a manner to keep in touch and relate with the world of the living: in other words, the Etruscans thought that the deceased would keep on living in his or her tomb. This belief was embodied by the habit of creating tombs that looked like homes and that, just like a living dwelling, would hold furniture, objects, personal and precious belongings. The architecture of these earlier Etruscan tombs was similar to that of their homes: constructed upon a circular plant with large stone blocks, their roofs were mock domes created by diminishing the circumference of the building while it rose, and by closing it up with a flat stone. The burial chamber was usually accessible through a corridor, along which food offerings were left by the living to the dead. This type of graves were replaced by underground tombs, often excavated on the sides of local hills, called hypogeum tombs. If they were, on the other hand, excavated on flat ground, then covered with stones and soil, they were called tumuli. Both hypogea and tumuli were characterized by a central room, accessed through a long corridor, from which other rooms could be reached. This created a more complex structure, comparable to a family mausoleum, where several members of the same family would be buried. A third type of tomb was that called a edicola, where small, rectangular stone buildings, surmounted by a slightly slanted roof, hosted one or more burial chambers. Archaeologists who excavated the Etruscan necropolises of Tarquinia and Cerveteri came across clothes, weapons, jewels and many every day life's objects. Etruscan tombs were also intricately decorated, their frescoes representing scenes symbolic of life: banquets, athletic games, feasts were all favorite subjects.

~ 10 ~

Since the 5th century BC, the Etruscans' cult of the dead became closer to that of the Greek, and the creation within their set of spiritual beliefs of a proper, underground location of the Kingdom of the Dead (the Greek Hades) – as well as of a proper set of divinities related to Death and its kingdom – is witness to it. The spiritual complexity of Greek religion was embraced by the Etruscans, who changed their cult for the dead accordingly. Such evolution was mirrored also in the construction and architecture of the tombs themselves, as it has been mentioned above.

Roma Caput MundiSo far, we've discussed the funerary habits of Pre-Roman people and touched tangentially, by citing them in relation with the Etruscans', those of the Greeks who, we must remember, had been stationed in the South of Italy and Sicily since the 8th century BC. What did, however, the Romans make of the cult of the dead? How did they deal with the different procedures of burial and how were their tombs? It's thanks to an in-depth analysis of classical Latin literature and, of course, to archaeological findings, that we're today able to understand how the most beloved of all Italian ancestors took care of the faithful departed.

The family would gather around the dying relative and, after his or her passing, mourning would be expressed through ritual crying and weeping. Afterwards, the body of the deceased was prepared for burial: it was washed, rubbed with essential oils and dressed. A small coin was placed in the dead's mouth, so that s/he would be able to pay Charon his fare. The body was now ready for the wake, which could last for a period between one and seven days; after it, the funeral would take place. A procession composed by the deceased's relatives – all rigorously dressed in black – and, in the case of wealthy members of society, also by paid mourners, followed the body outside the city's walls to the place of burial. This is an important point: ancient civilizations, including the Greeks, the Romans and the Jewish people of Palestine, regarded a corpse, or its ashes, as an impure vessel, able to taint the living. For this reason, burial was not allowed within the city itself, but had to take place outside its walls. This was to create issues in later centuries, when Christianity and one of its most popular cults, that of saints, were to take over the Empire by storm.

Once the burial site was reached, the body was usually cremated and its ashes preserved in a specially prepared urn. Although cremation was a favored method of burial for the Romans, they also used inumation relatively often, especially when the deceased belonged to lower classes of society. The funeral was followed by a series of rituals aimed at cleansing the relatives from the prolonged contact with a corpse, as well as legally finalyzing the funeral procedures. On the very day of the funeral, the family would consume a meal by the tombs of the deceased (the silicernium). Nine days after the burial, another meal (the cena novenalis) would take place to mark the official end of the mourning period.

In Rome, the dead were worshipped almost as demi-gods, and were particularly important for the spiritual well-being of their families. They were remembered privately on the day of their birthday, and publicly during two distinct festivals, the Parentalia and the Lemuria. The first were privately held celebrations in honor of the family's dead; the latter were, on the other hand, celebrated by the whole nation and had the goal to exorcise the souls of the dead to refrain them from harming the living.

Roman Tombs: Their StructureAs it happened for all well-off people in every society, the wealthy of Rome liked mausolea as their final resting place. They were usually built, as we said, outside the city walls, along the main roads leading from Rome to other relevant towns of the Empire (see, for instance, the Parco Archeologico delle Tombe di Via Latina). They were usually constructed using heavily cemented, small stone blocks in an opus incertum pattern, and tufa was preferred to marble for their decoration. The interior was complex and often characterized by the presence of several burial chambers, as these buildings were usually for families, rather than single individuals. These rooms were small in size, usually rectangular and had a vaulted ceiling. In them, the urn containing the cremated remains of the deceased was kept. Many are the mausolea still extant and visible, all around Rome and its surroundings: some of the best known are the Mausoleo di Augusto, the Sepolcro di Priscilla and, of course, Castel Sant'Angelo, which was built on the existing mausoleum of the Emperor Adrian. Whoever could not afford mausolea (the majority of people, in fact), was usually interred in less flamboyantly built necropolises, such as the Necropoli del Tempio di Antonino Pio e Faustina, the Necropoli dell'Esquilino and the Necropoli

~ 11 ~

Vaticana. Here, burial would take place underground and the urns containing the deceased's remains were usually interred with several objects useful for his or her life in the afterworld.

Christian Burials in Italy When thinking of how Christianity entered the world of Rome, we often make the mistake to believe it happened very suddenly and that, even more strikingly, it entirely changed the habits and customs of people. In truth, things didn't go really that way, but this is not the moment to discuss such an extensive subject quite yet: we will, however, look at how Christian beliefs changed the perception of the dead and their cult in Rome. Then, we'll take a look at how the Christians' relation with the dead evolved in the Middle Ages: since then, one can easily say, the manner we deal, love and care for our dead in Italy has changed very little.

The first Christian Graveyards in Italy: The CatacombsThe Roman catacombs were created between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century AD, under the pontificate of Pope Zephyrinus (199-217). He asked the deacon Calistus (who was to become Pope after him) to overview the construction and the successive use of the cemetery on the Via Appia, where several important Popes of the 3rd century would be buried. As we saw, inumation was commonly used by the Etruscans, the Jewish people and the Romans, but it's truly with Christianity that it became the principal form of burial in Italy: this is because Christians began to create larger burial areas capable to host not only a family, but rather the entire Christian community and used inumation to do so.

Catacombs are largely excavated in tufa. For this reason, they are particularly common in central Italy and in the South and the islands, where this specific geological conformation is usual. As their main chambers are well under the ground, catacombs are characterized by the presence of long stairs and corridors, in a fashion similar to that of coal mines. These corridors are called gallerie, galleries, and their walls are covered with orizontally-set niches, each the length of a person: these are the loculi, where ordinary Christians were buried. Once the body was placed inside, the loculus was closed either with bricks and mortar or marble slabs, very much as we still do in Italy today. Don't forget that catacombs are not only in Rome: those in Palermo are renowned, although created much later in time, between the 17th and 19th centuries. The Middle Ages: Just as Today

During the last centuries of the Roman Empire, in a period commonly known today as Late Antiquity (think about the centuries from the 3rd to the 6th), the influence of Christianity in Italy (and in the whole of Europe) grew to the point of changing little by little the way people behaved, also when it came to burial practices. It was during these centuries that the habit of burying the dead outside the city walls began to be abandoned: this was due to the development of a crucial cult for the history of Christianity, that of Saints and their relics. People believed that being physically close to the place of burial of a holy person could make their prayers more powerful. As a consequence, the tombs of many early saints became extremely popular destinations of pilgrimage. To facilitate visits, chapels and churches were built around the tombs and, later, burial would more simply take place in an area (usually within the city walls) more easily accessible and to control. Holy people, as well as important local personalities began being buried in churches, usually in the walls, or in the ground, with marble gravestones indicating their name. This remained usual practice for centuries in Italy. Even today, to a certain extent, it's still maintained: when Pope John Paul II became a Saint, his body was moved from the Vatican Crypt to the Basilica.

In the Middle Ages, as it is in Italy still today, dealing with death was the duty of the Church: the priest would be called to the house of the dying and administer the last rites. Windows and doors would be opened to allow the soul of the departed to freely move to Heaven. In those times, it was women who took care of cleaning and dressing the body, whereas today it is usually the task of professionals. However, it's not uncommon in Italy for members of the family and friends to help: one last moment of intimacy with the departed. The presence of a funeral procession was common, as it is still today, and as it was in Roman times. In the Middle Ages, common parishioners would be interred on Church ground, as it was consacrated; this is still, in a way, true of today's practice, as Cemeteries are always on consacrated soil.

~ 12 ~

When it comes to burial practices and the cult of the dead, very little has changed in Italy since the Middle Ages. This is because both practices are well in the hands of a profoundly traditional institution, the Catholic Church, and also because people find comfort in relating to what is known and consoling in a moment of pain. A clear difference, however, is that today cremation is accepted by the Church, whereas it wasn't up to about 15 or 20 years ago: it's common today to see smaller loculi in our cemeteries, made specially to contain urns, rather than caskets. One peculiarity of our cemeteries, especially if compared to anglosaxon and north americans, is the large presence of loculi, burial niches, a method very common everywhere in the country and not only in the cemeteries of larger cities.

~ 13 ~