Photo: Gehweider · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Foltermuseum Burghausen

Private museum in the medieval Schergenturm of Burghausen Castle with a torture chamber, dungeon and death cell as well as replica instruments of torture.

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Foltermuseum BurghausenOpening hours

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About the museum

The Foltermuseum (Torture Museum) is located in the so-called Schergen or Folterturm (bailiffs' or torture tower), part of the extensive castle complex of Burghausen. For centuries the tower served the administration of justice: prisoners were interrogated and held here, and the last execution took place at the castle in 1831.

The privately run museum uses the historic rooms of the tower. On the ground floor is the former torture chamber, beneath which lay the dungeon, separated from the chamber only by a grating. From the first floor one reaches the neighbouring Hexenturm (Witches' Tower); on the second floor the death cell is preserved with a wooden cot and a stove that could be heated from the outside.

Since hardly any original instruments of torture from Burghausen Castle have survived, the museum mainly shows replicas. They illustrate the practice of judicial interrogation under torture and of criminal justice in earlier centuries, and make the small tower a worthwhile detour for castle visitors interested in the dark sides of legal history.

Highlights

Historic Schergenturm of Burghausen Castle
Former torture chamber with the dungeon beneath it
Death cell with wooden cot and stove heated from the outside
Passage to the Hexenturm
Replicas of historic instruments of torture

Permanent exhibition

Folterkammer, Verlies und Todeszelle – Tour through the three levels of the Schergenturm with replicas of instruments of torture and insights into the former criminal justice system.

Founded: 1986
Operated by: Privat (Peter Fischer)