A Medieval Torture of Unspeakable Horror...

Taken from the French verb ‘to forget’ this was a special type of medieval dungeon and it would have one entrance, a trap door at the top, through which the prisoner would be thrown and forgotten. Often these dark and dank prisons were not wide enough for a person to be able to stand up straight, lie down or even sit comfortably. Sometimes food and water would be given intermittently, so the prisoner could be kept alive for months or years, slowly going insane. The oubliette at Warwick Castle in England was just like a coffin. The prisoner was made to lie down on jagged stones with the ceiling just inches above their body. The one in Leap Castle, Ireland had several spikes at the bottom, any prisoner thrown in there would have been impaled and then left to suffer an agonising death. During restoration work in the 1920s three cartloads of skeletons were removed from this oubliette.

Narrated by James Wade
Written by Lisa E Rawcliffe
Edited by James Wade

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[Zulma]

Humans can invent such horrific devices to damage other humans. It's incredible!

[samwisethebrave]

Barbaric... just totally insane how cruel we really are.

[keithwellerlounge]

I’m amazed anyone allowed themselves to be taken alive in those days.

[Ziorac]

The amount of skeletons found in them makes you realise that they left the bodies there and just threw in the next. Meaning you'd be left to rot on top of a pile of corpses...

[armosamarosso]

I saw the one at Warwick when I was kid, yeah I had nightmares about it...

[leightonolsson]

Reminds me of the "room of little ease" in the Tower of London. Just the thought of that makes me feel panicky

[MegaMiquelon]

Since some politicians believe video games make us violent, I wonder what kind of awesome and sick video games they had back then in medieval era

[bjm]

I heard that some of them were shaped like a bottle of wine. I wrote a tiny poem:

Shaped like a bottle of wine
The oubliette cannot be climbed
No matter the man, no matter the crime
He's left forgotten and passes like time

[lm]

Extend it by having minimal food and water. Sleep deprivation and uncomfortable positioning.
Truly horrific.

[isrulius]

The medieval people were masters of death and pain. Life was cheap back then.

[caitlinallen]

Wish I could "oubliette" that I ever saw this 😞

[Nervii_Champion]

This is why you teach your children the importance of Good itself, and you make sure you are strong enough to fight Evil when it shows itself. More importantly, you teach your children this by example.

[Sennapop]

Yeah that's truly just as bad as being buried alive pretty much....I don't wish this upon Any1!

[imsteph]

The first time I ever heard about an oubliette was from the 80's movie "Labyrinth". One of my faves!

[finnilrebna]

Awesome. Makes me glad I’m alive today. 😅

[madiantin]

Three cartloads. Oh my gosh.
Thing is: those who died wouldn't be *skeletons* when other people were thrown in there. They would be bodies. Rotting corpses. The stench must have been choking. And you'd be standing on dead people. So awful.

[andreweaston]

I was just explaining what this was to a guy from Norway today. Small world to see your short later on.

[ghostinthemachine]

It seems that humans are far more inclined to be cruel instead of kind. We really need to work on that.

[aenimalewis]

Even worse thinking possibly the innocent were also sentenced.

[anarchistangler]

The lesson is to attack before individuals acquire the power to do this.