Prison After the trial, Vasily, in accordance with the sentence, had to immediately go to a forced labor camp. But this gave rise to a new problem. Stalin's son - a military officer who had just flown a flagship plane at the annual parades - will end up in a camp?! How

47. Prison Menocchio remained in prison at Concordia for almost two years. On January 18, 1586, his son Zannuto submitted a petition on behalf of himself, his brothers and his mother to Bishop Matteo Sanudo and the Inquisitor of Aquileia and Concordia, who at that time was Evangelista's brother Peleo.

Chapter 8 Prison Perhaps the old central prison is waiting for me, the unfortunate one, in a new one. From the thieves' song Arrest and interrogation deprived a person of strength, suppressed his will, and took away his ability to think rationally. But the Soviet prison system itself, in which the prisoner

General information

Prison institutions have existed in one way or another since ancient times, their maintenance was extremely expensive, so criminals were kept there mainly until they were sentenced to another punishment - execution, sent to build roads, to mines, to galleys, etc. However, over time, prison punishment becomes dominant. This became an indicator of both a certain wealth of society and the degree of its humanity (in comparison, of course, with the previously existing practice of capital punishment and self-harm). At the same time, even in the late Middle Ages, prisons did not have any specific goals or order of organization. The main task of such institutions, as well as their main element, was the extremely strict isolation of criminals (as well as those who were classified as such by the authorities).

Only fragmentary evidence has reached us about prisons of ancient times, so it is extremely problematic to talk about specific aspects of this activity of early societies. For example, the history of Egypt is associated with the first mentions of places of detention - special settlements for criminals performing hard physical work together with slaves. We know the history of penitentiary institutions as completely as possible from the practice of the Roman state.

The Roman state did not know imprisonment as a type of punishment; it did not have special institutions where persons unwanted by the authorities, those under investigation and trial, insolvent debtors and other guilty subjects were temporarily placed (as a rule, until their future fate was decided).

Among the Roman prisons, called punishment cells (fence, dungeon), we can name the oldest Mamertine prison, located next to the forum, with its underground part (Tullianum), which was often used for executing criminals. The prison itself was a narrow and long room with a vaulted ceiling, hewn out of the rock. The name of the Mamertine prison is associated with the names of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, who, while bound in this basement, converted their guards Processus and Martinian to Christianity, who later became martyrs.

The bodies of those executed with hooks were dragged into the Tiber along the descent from the Capitoline Hill, and this last road for many was popularly called the “Staircase of Sobs” or “Kolechnikov Staircase”.

From ancient times, near the Capitol, in the quarries there was also the Lautumia punishment cell. In addition, the largest estates (latifundia) had so-called ergastulums (worker's house, strait house) - premises in isolated buildings on the estate, acting as punishment cells for temporarily punished slaves and prisons for slaves who were doomed for some offenses to work in chains for life. Also, ergastulum was usually called a special prison for citizens, in which rich creditors locked up faulty debtors, using them for daily work. Hard labor in the mines was a severe punishment (up to 40 thousand slaves were employed in the Spanish silver mines alone). The convicted person was considered as an eternal slave of the state.

The penitentiary aspect of the fight against crime in Western Europe in the 11th—16th centuries.

The formation of Western European penitentiary policy and the system of special institutions for organizing punishment in the form of imprisonment was closely related to the vision of the picture of the universe by the Catholic Church and measures taken by the state to combat the deviant behavior of disadvantaged segments of the population (beggars and vagabonds). Therefore, it took place within the framework of the social function of initially public, and later state institutions.

In Western European countries, for a long time, prisons served only as a means of temporary detention of persons under investigation, debtors, beggars, vagabonds, incurable patients, crazy people, etc.

With a completely undeveloped state law enforcement system, only social support for the poor and disadvantaged segments of the population made it possible to somehow restrain the tide of mercenary and violent crime, especially in famine years. Sometimes radical measures were taken to combat beggary and vagrancy. So, in the 13th century. in Genoa, during a food shortage, the entire mendicant element was put on several galleas (large galleys) and taken to Sardinia.

Formation of the prison system in England

The earliest prison system took shape was in England. The Clarendon Assize of 1166 enshrined the order for the construction of a special institution in each county. There were two types of prisons: count and immune.

The most common penitentiary system in England until the second half of the 19th century. There were county jails where sheriffs initially placed persons suspected and accused of committing felonies. A sheriff's assistant - a warden or a prison guard - was directly responsible for the functioning of a particular institution.

Over time, a sufficiently extensive system of prison institutions was created. Thus, along with royal prisons, similar institutions were available in the form of immune prisons for spiritual and secular aristocrats, prisons for cities and even individual communities, including rural ones, for the detention of criminals, debtors, as well as for petty offenders and “alien people and vagabonds” ( XIII century). Each court also had its own special prison facilities. At the same time, any non-immune prison was under royal jurisdiction, since it was nominally created at the royal court.

There were also special prisons. Thus, the Tower of London gained its fame due to its proximity to the residence of the British kings, as well as due to its strength and the presence of a garrison as a prison for state and other criminals especially dangerous to the authorities. The castles of Wallingford, Nottingham, Windsor and Winchester were often used for the same purposes.

Initially, there was no special procedure for holding prisoners. Everyone was kept together: adult and juvenile criminals, men and women, hardened criminals and simply vagabonds, beggars and the sick. Some differences appeared only in connection with the solvency of a particular entity. During the reign of Henry II, on the basis of general orders of the crown, local sheriffs began to create instructions for the commandants of prison castles - prison provisions.

However, despite the creation of a fairly extensive system of prison institutions, the high cost of their maintenance led to the fact that in England until the end of the 18th century. the most severe and at the same time the most common punishment was hanging, including for theft of property worth more than 40 shillings.

Organization of workhouses and correctional houses

A significant tightening of measures to influence the poor segments of the population characterized law enforcement practice in the countries of victorious Protestantism - England, Denmark, Sweden. “In these countries, the mere fact of poverty was enough to end up on the gallows.”

The first workhouses to provide work for vagabonds and beggars with a prison regime (tsuhthaus) were organized in 1595-1596. in Holland: for men - Rashuis and women - Spinhuis. The length of stay in these institutions was 8-12 years. In England, workhouses were created in 1610, in France - in 1612. Over time, the number of such institutions increased significantly. In addition to detained criminals, tramps and beggars, the prisons also housed the insane.

Zuchthaus gradually began to be created in the cities of the Hanseatic League: in Lübeck - in 1613, Bremen - in 1606, Hamburg - in 1620, Basel - in 1667, Breslau - in 1668, Frankfurt - in 1684 At the same time, the Thirty Years' War brought ruin to the cities, which led to the cessation of the activities of the Zukhthaus. Over time, their positive experience was completely forgotten.

The experience of the Dutch zuchthaus was developed by the activities of the workhouse in Ghent, which laid the foundation for the formation of the Flemish penal system. The educational approach was based on the idea that the cause of most crimes is idleness, the habit of which should be eradicated in each individual criminal. Constant work and learning a craft should be payment to society for the crime committed. In addition, the accumulation of some money at the time of release and the acquisition of labor skills for a further decent existence will also play a positive role in protecting society from a possible repetition of criminal excesses.

In 1529-1531. in France, beggars with aggressive intentions roamed the streets and even attacked the houses of wealthy citizens. In 1530, with the help of special detachments, beggars were caught and placed in a specially created prison.

However, the most brutal measures against beggars and vagabonds were used in England. For example, in accordance with the edict of Henry VIII, from 1531, both beggars and those who gave them alms were equally subject to corporal punishment (the first prohibition of giving alms was made back in 1349).

During the reign of Elizabeth I, reformatory and correctional houses began to be created to combat beggary. In 1557, a house of correction was opened in Bridwell with the strictest labor regime and prison discipline. Prisoners were involved in hard physical work in mines and bakeries. However, already in 1587 this idea discredited itself, since the creation of a correctional house did not eliminate the problem of vagrancy and beggary, and the joint work of those simply detained for begging and persons serving sentences for committing obvious crimes “killed in the first all instincts of kindness and eroded in the their consciousness of the boundaries between good and evil." We can say that correctional institutions have simply merged with prisons. A new surge in the activity of correctional and workhouses in England was associated with the economic boom of the mid-17th century.

The widespread use of forced labor of detained offenders was also typical for other countries. Thus, in French institutions for keeping “harmful” beggars—hospitals—prisoners worked from 5-6 a.m. until dusk. At the same time, men's labor was used in mines, breweries, sawmills, and women's and children's labor was used in shoemaking, sewing, spinning, making buttons, etc. Failure to meet the daily quota was strictly punished by a reduction in nutritional standards and imprisonment. In the 18th century beggars began to be punished with whips, sent to galleys or into exile in colonies (“across the seas”).

The appropriate material and later legal basis for imprisonment as a form of punishment was created only during the period of bourgeois changes.

The formation of penitentiary systems in New and Contemporary times

Imprisonment as a special correctional measure

The appearance of the term “penal system” is associated with the name of the Benedictian monk Jean Mabillon, who proposed a special system of measures for the correction of criminals. In his opinion, the salvation of a person who has fallen into the sin of crime, i.e. its correction can only be achieved through spiritual cleansing - prayer and repentance, as well as the maintenance (punishment) of sinful flesh in conditions of severe imprisonment.

Over time, certain provisions of this concept were embodied in various types of prison institutions created in Europe: correctional labor houses for children in Genoa and Rome (in 1653 and 1735) and for adult criminals in Milan (in 1766).

In England, the Law on the creation of penitentiaries was issued in 1778. In such institutions it was supposed to place beggars and vagabonds, careless servants and workers, soldiers for committing any not particularly serious offenses (and subsequently children, at the request of their parents, for disobedience and impudence). behavior). Here preference was given to forced labor, but in conditions of solitary confinement. The Parliamentary Bill of 1779 established the role of imprisonment in the form of deterrence, moral and religious re-education and training in a trade. However, the project did not go beyond the construction of one of the two prisons planned for the experiment.

Philadelphia Penitentiary System

Nevertheless, the idea of ​​penitentiaries received practical design in the form of the Philadelphia system in the USA, where in 1776 representatives of the religious sect of Quakers created the first penitentiary (from the Latin penitentiamus - repentant, correctional). It was a prison institution with a very strict regime and conditions for serving the sentence. According to the Quakers, crime is generated by apostasy, and therefore the criminal should be intimidated, forced to repent and reconciled with the Almighty. Therefore, the penitentiary was a prison with extremely strict solitary confinement. They were known to the administration only by their numbers: no name, no origin, no crime committed, no sentence. All convicts were shod in felt shoes. They were not entitled to visits or letters and parcels. Absolute silence and isolation from the outside world. Everything was replaced by the Bible. If you speak a word, you will be flogged; if you leave the cell, you will be wearing a mask. Hospital, bathhouse, walks - a series of solitary cells, courtyards. There are also single booths in the church.

The silent, strict solitary confinement was designed for “a person’s ability for endless improvement, to convince the believing soul that loneliness inevitably prompts repentance and will certainly return a person to goodness,” but in fact it only led to insanity and the inability of those released to navigate freedom.

The Philadelphia prison system was widely used in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, France and some other European countries. In some prisons, prisoners were forced to work - pedaling a huge drum, sometimes for ten hours a day. This meaningless, exhausting and humiliating activity was one of the elements of punishment. It is not surprising that in such conditions prisoners went crazy much more often than in other institutions (V. Stern).

Soon, solitary confinement was reduced to nine months, several exercise yards were expanded, yards for joint walks were created, and church boxes were abolished.

Oborn prison system

Already from the middle of the 18th century. processes of a noticeable softening of the criminal and penitentiary policies of European states began. As a result of a deep rethinking of the basic approaches to punishment, it gradually begins to lose the properties of state revenge itself and acquires the character of public protection.

Under these conditions, elements of the Oborn prison system (1820, USA) appeared, which was intended to somewhat weaken the negative properties of the Philadelphia system. So, by the middle of the 19th century. The isolation system was replaced by the “punishment cell”, which left somewhat more freedom to the prisoners.

In France, in 1850, penal colonies were opened for juvenile offenders, who were to be “educated together in strict discipline and used to work in agriculture and related industries.” The main goal was to instill in the individual blind obedience to authority and discipline. An exemplary of such institutions was the colony in Mettre (founded in 1840). The main means of disciplinary action was placement in a punishment cell. In addition, hard physical labor in the training and education of juvenile delinquents was supplemented by physically exhausting games and exercises, as the belief was in effect: “Everything that causes fatigue helps to expel bad thoughts.”

Progressive punishment system

In the middle of the 19th century, along with the penitentiary system, some elements of the so-called progressive system of execution of punishment (undividedly dominant at present) appeared.

It originates from the English (brand or star) system, when in the 1840s. on Norfolk Island (near Australia), convicts were divided into classes and conditions were created for a gradual transition from a more difficult regime (in the quarries) to a lighter regime of detention (on the mainland - with the possibility of building a house, starting a family, farming, with the prospect of conditional early release). In this case, the criterion was the behavior of convicts and their attitude to work. Malicious violators were included in the penalty box, severe corporal punishment and additional shackles were applied to them.

For juvenile offenders, reformatories—correctional institutions—appear (New York State, 1876). The basis of their activities, like the punishment cell, was the idea that the cause of all vices is laziness and that work is the best medicine against them. Convicts between the ages of 16 and 30 were placed here for a relatively indefinite period, paying for their own maintenance from the sums they earned. The conditions of detention were as follows: a strict rule of silence; drill and other training according to military regulations. Upon parole, a probationary period of six months was established (with the possibility of extension for another six months or return to prison). “In the wild” the supervision of agents of the prison administration was established. The final decision on release was made by the administration of the reformatory.

As a result of the improvement of the stamp system, the so-called Irish progressive system appeared, the main difference of which was the stage of stay in a transitional prison with the possibility of parole.

The Irish system was extremely complex (the need for “minor” study, control, supervision) and cumbersome, and therefore gradually faded away. But it was subsequently re-adopted and is now in effect, for example, in France and Sweden. In the USSR, the idea was implemented in the creation of colony settlements in the mid-1970s.

You write about a baron in a castle - at least have a rough idea of ​​how the castle was heated, how it was ventilated, how it was lit...
From an interview with G. L. Oldie

When we hear the word “castle,” our imagination conjures up an image of a majestic fortress - the hallmark of the fantasy genre. There is hardly any other architectural structure that would attract so much attention from historians, military experts, tourists, writers and lovers of “fairy-tale” fiction.

We play computer, board and role-playing games where we have to explore, build or capture impenetrable castles. But do we know what these fortifications actually are? What interesting stories are associated with them? What do the stone walls hide behind - witnesses of entire eras, grandiose battles, knightly nobility and vile betrayal?

Surprisingly, it is a fact - fortified dwellings of feudal lords in different parts of the world (Japan, Asia, Europe) were built according to very similar principles and had many common design features. But in this article we will focus primarily on medieval European feudal fortresses, since they served as the basis for the creation of a mass artistic image of a “medieval castle” as a whole.

Birth of a fortress

The Middle Ages in Europe were a turbulent time. The feudal lords, for any reason, organized small wars among themselves - or rather, not even wars, but, in modern language, armed “showdowns”. If a neighbor had money, it had to be taken away. Lots of land and peasants? This is simply indecent, because God ordered sharing. And if knightly honor was affected, then it was simply impossible to do without a small victorious war.

Under such circumstances, the large aristocratic landowners had no choice but to strengthen their homes with the expectation that one fine day their neighbors might come to visit them, and if they don’t feed them bread, let them kill someone.

Initially, these fortifications were made of wood and did not resemble the castles we know in any way - except that a ditch was dug in front of the entrance and a wooden palisade was placed around the house.

The manorial courts of Hasterknaup and Elmendorv are the ancestors of the castles.

However, progress did not stand still - with the development of military affairs, the feudal lords had to modernize their fortifications so that they could withstand a massive assault using stone cannonballs and rams.

The European castle has its roots in antiquity. The earliest structures of this kind copied Roman military camps (tents surrounded by a palisade). It is generally accepted that the tradition of building gigantic (by the standards of that time) stone structures began with the Normans, and classic castles appeared in the 12th century.

The besieged castle of Mortan (withstood the siege for 6 months).

The castle had very simple requirements - it must be inaccessible to the enemy, provide surveillance of the area (including the nearest villages belonging to the owner of the castle), have its own source of water (in case of a siege) and perform representative functions - that is, show the power and wealth of the feudal lord.

Beaumarie Castle, owned by Edward I.

Welcome

We are heading to the castle, which stands on a ledge of a mountain slope, at the edge of a fertile valley. The road goes through a small settlement - one of those that usually grew up near the fortress wall. Simple people live here - mostly artisans, and warriors guarding the outer perimeter of defense (in particular, guarding our road). These are the so-called “castle people”.

Scheme of castle structures. Note that there are two gate towers, the largest one standing separately.

The road is laid in such a way that the newcomers always face the castle with their right side, not covered by a shield. Directly in front of the fortress wall there is a bare plateau, lying at a significant slope (the castle itself stands on an elevation - natural or embankment). The vegetation here is low so that there is no cover for attackers.

The first obstacle is a deep ditch, and in front of it is a shaft of excavated earth. The moat can be transverse (separates the castle wall from the plateau) or crescent-shaped, curved forward. If the landscape allows, a moat encircles the entire castle in a circle.

Sometimes dividing ditches were dug inside the castle, making it difficult for the enemy to move through its territory.

The bottom shape of ditches could be V-shaped or U-shaped (the latter is the most common). If the soil under the castle is rocky, then ditches were either not made at all, or they were cut down to a shallow depth, preventing only the advance of infantry (it is almost impossible to dig under the castle wall in the rock - therefore the depth of the ditch was not of decisive importance).

The crest of the earthen rampart lying directly in front of the ditch (which makes it seem even deeper) often carried a palisade - a fence made of wooden stakes dug into the ground, pointed and tightly fitted to each other.

A bridge spanning a moat leads to the outer wall of the castle. Depending on the size of the ditch and bridge, the latter is supported by one or more supports (huge logs). The outer part of the bridge is fixed, but the last section (right next to the wall) is movable.

Scheme of the entrance to the castle: 2 - gallery on the wall, 3 - drawbridge, 4 - grate.

Counterweights on the gate lift.

Castle gate.

This drawbridge is designed so that in a vertical position it covers the gate. The bridge is powered by mechanisms hidden in the building above them. From the bridge to the lifting machines, ropes or chains go into the wall openings. To facilitate the work of people servicing the bridge mechanism, the ropes were sometimes equipped with heavy counterweights, taking part of the weight of this structure on themselves.

Of particular interest is the bridge, which worked on the principle of a swing (it is called “tipping” or “swinging”). One half of it was inside - lying on the ground under the gate, and the other stretched across the ditch. When the inner part rose, covering the entrance to the castle, the outer part (which the attackers sometimes already managed to run into) sank down into the ditch, where the so-called “wolf pit” was built (sharp stakes dug into the ground), invisible from the outside until the bridge is down.

To enter the castle when the gates were closed, there was a side gate next to them, to which a separate lift ladder was usually laid.

The gate is the most vulnerable part of the castle; it was usually not made directly into its wall, but was located in the so-called “gate towers”. Most often, the gates were double-leaf, and the doors were knocked together from two layers of boards. To protect against arson, they were lined with iron on the outside. At the same time, in one of the doors there was a small narrow door that could only be passed through by bending over. In addition to locks and iron bolts, the gate was closed by a transverse beam lying in the wall channel and sliding into the opposite wall. The cross beam could also be inserted into hook-shaped slots on the walls. Its main purpose was to protect the goal from being attacked by attackers.

Behind the gate there was usually a lowering grate. Most often it was made of wood, with lower ends bound in iron. But there were also iron gratings made from steel tetrahedral rods. The lattice could descend from a gap in the arch of the gate portal, or be located behind them (on the inside of the gate tower), descending along grooves in the walls.

The grate hung on ropes or chains, which in case of danger could be cut off so that it would quickly fall down, blocking the path of the invaders.

Inside the gate tower there were rooms for guards. They kept watch on the upper platform of the tower, learned from the guests the purpose of their visit, opened the gates, and, if necessary, could shoot with a bow all those who passed under them. For this purpose, in the arch of the gate portal there were vertical loopholes, as well as “resin noses” - holes for pouring hot resin onto the attackers.

Tar noses.

All on the wall!

The most important defensive element of the castle was the outer wall - high, thick, sometimes on an inclined base. Processed stones or bricks made up its outer surface. Inside it consisted of rubble stone and slaked lime. The walls were placed on a deep foundation, under which it was very difficult to dig.

Often double walls were built in castles - a high external one and a small internal one. An empty space appeared between them, which received the German name “zwinger”. The attackers, when overcoming the outer wall, could not take with them additional assault devices (bulky ladders, poles and other things that cannot be moved inside the fortress). Once in the zwinger in front of another wall, they became an easy target (there were small loopholes in the walls of the zwinger for archers).

Zwinger at Lanek Castle.

At the top of the wall there was a gallery for defense soldiers. On the outside of the castle they were protected by a strong parapet of half human height, on which stone battlements were regularly located. You could stand behind them at full height and, for example, load a crossbow. The shape of the teeth was extremely varied - rectangular, round, swallowtail-shaped, decoratively decorated. In some castles, the galleries were covered (wooden canopy) to protect the soldiers from the weather.

In addition to the battlements, behind which it was convenient to hide, the castle walls were equipped with loopholes. The attackers fired through them. Due to the peculiarities of using throwing weapons (freedom of movement and a certain shooting position), the loopholes for archers were long and narrow, and for crossbowmen they were short, with expansion on the sides.

A special type of loophole is a ball loophole. It was a freely rotating wooden ball fixed to the wall with a slot for firing.

Pedestrian gallery on the wall.

Balconies (the so-called “machiculi”) were installed in the walls very rarely - for example, in the case when the wall was too narrow for the free passage of several soldiers, and, as a rule, performed only decorative functions.

At the corners of the castle, small towers were built on the walls, most often flanking (that is, protruding outward), which allowed the defenders to fire along the walls in two directions. In the late Middle Ages, they began to be adapted for storage. The inner sides of such towers (facing the castle courtyard) were usually left open so that an enemy who broke into the wall could not gain a foothold inside them.

Flanking corner tower.

Castle from the inside

The internal structure of the locks was varied. In addition to the mentioned zwingers, behind the main gate there could be a small rectangular courtyard with loopholes in the walls - a kind of “trap” for attackers. Sometimes castles consisted of several “sections” separated by internal walls. But an indispensable attribute of the castle was a large courtyard (outbuildings, a well, rooms for servants) and a central tower, also known as the “donjon”.

Donjon at Vincennes Castle.

The life of all the inhabitants of the castle directly depended on the presence and location of the well. Problems often arose with it - after all, as mentioned above, castles were built on hills. The solid rocky soil also did not make the task of supplying water to the fortress any easier. There are known cases of castle wells being laid to a depth of more than 100 meters (for example, Kuffhäuser Castle in Thuringia or the Königstein fortress in Saxony had wells more than 140 meters deep). Digging a well took from one to five years. In some cases, this consumed as much money as the entire interior of the castle cost.

Due to the fact that water had to be obtained with difficulty from deep wells, issues of personal hygiene and sanitation faded into the background. Instead of washing themselves, people preferred to care for animals - especially expensive horses. It is not surprising that townspeople and villagers wrinkled their noses in the presence of castle inhabitants.

The location of the water source depended primarily on natural causes. But if there was a choice, then the well was dug not in the square, but in a fortified room, in order to provide it with water in case of shelter during a siege. If, due to the nature of the occurrence of groundwater, a well was dug behind the castle wall, then a stone tower was built above it (if possible, with wooden passages into the castle).

When there was no way to dig a well, a cistern was built in the castle to collect rainwater from the roofs. Such water needed purification - it was filtered through gravel.

The military garrison of castles in peacetime was minimal. So in 1425, two co-owners of the castle of Reichelsberg in the Lower Franconian Aube entered into an agreement that each of them would provide one armed servant, and pay two gatekeepers and two guards together.

The castle also had a number of buildings that ensured the autonomous life of its inhabitants in conditions of complete isolation (blockade): a bakery, a steam bath, a kitchen, etc.

Kitchen at Marksburg Castle.

The tower was the tallest structure in the entire castle. It provided the ability to observe the surrounding area and served as a last refuge. When the enemies broke through all the defense lines, the population of the castle took refuge in the donjon and withstood a long siege.

The exceptional thickness of the walls of this tower made its destruction almost impossible (in any case, it would have taken a huge amount of time). The entrance to the tower was very narrow. It was located in the courtyard at a significant (6-12 meters) height. The wooden staircase leading inside could easily be destroyed and thereby block the attackers' path.

Entrance to the donjon.

Inside the tower there was sometimes a very high shaft going from top to bottom. It served either as a prison or a warehouse. Entry into it was possible only through a hole in the vault of the upper floor - “Angstloch” (German - terrifying hole). Depending on the purpose of the mine, the winch lowered prisoners or provisions into it.

If there were no prison premises in the castle, then the prisoners were placed in large wooden boxes made of thick boards, too small to stand up to their full height. These boxes could be installed in any room of the castle.

Of course, they were taken prisoner, first of all, to obtain a ransom or to use the prisoner in a political game. Therefore, VIPs were provided with the highest class - guarded chambers in the tower were allocated for their maintenance. This is exactly how Frederick the Handsome “spent his time” at the castle of Trausnitz on Pfeimde and Richard the Lionheart in Trifels.

Chamber at Marksburg Castle.

Abenberg Castle tower (12th century) in section.

At the base of the tower there was a basement, which could also be used as a dungeon, and a kitchen with a pantry. The main hall (dining room, common room) occupied an entire floor and was heated by a huge fireplace (it distributed heat only a few meters, so iron baskets with coals were placed further along the hall). Above were the chambers of the feudal lord's family, heated by small stoves.

At the very top of the tower there was an open (less often covered, but if necessary, the roof could be dropped) platform where a catapult or other throwing weapon could be installed to fire at the enemy. The standard (banner) of the owner of the castle was also erected there.

Sometimes the donjon did not serve as a living space. It could well have been used only for military-economic purposes (observation posts on the tower, dungeon, food storage). In such cases, the feudal lord’s family lived in the “palace” - the living quarters of the castle, standing apart from the tower. The palaces were built of stone and had several floors in height.

It should be noted that the living conditions in the castles were far from the most pleasant. Only the largest palaces had a large knightly hall for celebrations. It was very cold in the dungeons and palaces. Fireplace heating helped, but the walls were still covered with thick tapestries and carpets - not for decoration, but to preserve heat.

The windows let in very little sunlight (this was due to the fortification nature of the castle architecture); not all of them were glazed. Toilets were arranged in the form of a bay window in the wall. They were unheated, so visiting the outhouse in winter left people with a unique feeling.

Castle toilet.

Concluding our “tour” of the castle, we cannot fail to mention that it necessarily had a room for worship (temple, chapel). The indispensable inhabitants of the castle included a chaplain or priest, who, in addition to his main duties, played the role of a clerk and teacher. In the most modest fortresses, the role of a temple was played by a wall niche where a small altar stood.

Large temples had two floors. Commoners prayed below, and gentlemen gathered in a warm (sometimes glassed-in) choir on the second tier. The decoration of such rooms was quite modest - an altar, benches and wall paintings. Sometimes the temple served as a tomb for the family living in the castle. Less often it was used as a refuge (along with the donjon).

There are many tales told about underground passages in castles. Of course, there were moves. But very few of them led from the castle somewhere into the neighboring forest and could be used as an escape route. As a rule, there were no long moves at all. Most often there were short tunnels between individual buildings, or from the dungeon to a complex of caves under the castle (an additional shelter, warehouse or treasury).

War on earth and underground

Contrary to popular misconceptions, the average size of the military garrison of an ordinary castle during active hostilities rarely exceeded 30 people. This was quite enough for defense, since the inhabitants of the fortress were in relative safety behind its walls and did not suffer such losses as the attackers.

To take the castle, it was necessary to isolate it - that is, to block all food supply routes. That is why the attacking armies were much larger than the defending ones - about 150 people (this is true for a war of mediocre feudal lords).

The issue of provisions was the most painful. A person can live without water for several days, without food - about a month (one should take into account his low combat effectiveness during a hunger strike). Therefore, the owners of a castle preparing for a siege often took extreme measures - they drove out all the commoners who could not benefit the defense. As mentioned above, the garrison of the castles was small - it was impossible to feed an entire army under siege conditions.

The inhabitants of the castle rarely launched counterattacks. This simply did not make sense - there were fewer of them than the attackers, and they felt much calmer behind the walls. A special case is forays for food. The latter were carried out, as a rule, at night, in small groups that walked along poorly guarded paths to the nearest villages.

The attackers had no less problems. The siege of castles sometimes lasted for years (for example, the German Turant defended from 1245 to 1248), so the question of logistics for an army of several hundred people arose especially acutely.

In the case of the siege of Turant, chroniclers claim that during all this time the soldiers of the attacking army drank 300 fuders of wine (a fuder is a huge barrel). This amounts to about 2.8 million liters. Either the census taker made a mistake, or the constant number of besiegers was more than 1000 people.

The most preferred season for starving a castle was summer - there is less rain than in spring or autumn (in winter, the inhabitants of the castle could get water by melting snow), the crops were not yet ripe, and old supplies had already run out.

The attackers tried to deprive the castle of a source of water (for example, they built dams on the river). In the most extreme cases, “biological weapons” were used - corpses were thrown into the water, which could provoke outbreaks of epidemics throughout the area. Those inhabitants of the castle who were captured were mutilated by the attackers and released. They returned back and became unwitting parasites. They might not have been accepted at the castle, but if they were the wives or children of the besieged, then the voice of the heart outweighed considerations of tactical expediency.

The residents of the surrounding villages who tried to deliver supplies to the castle were treated no less cruelly. In 1161, during the siege of Milan, Frederick Barbarossa ordered the hands of 25 townspeople of Piacenza who were trying to supply food to their enemies to be cut off.

The besiegers set up a permanent camp near the castle. It also had some simple fortifications (palisades, earthen ramparts) in case of a sudden attack by the fortress’s defenders. For protracted sieges, a so-called “counter-castle” was built next to the castle. Usually it was located higher than the besieged one, which made it possible to conduct effective observation of the besieged from its walls and, if the distance allowed, to fire at them from throwing weapons.

View of Eltz Castle from Trutz-Eltz Counter-Castle.

The war against castles had its own specifics. After all, any more or less high stone fortification presented a serious obstacle to conventional armies. Direct infantry attacks on the fortress could well be crowned with success, which, however, came at the cost of great casualties.

That is why, in order to successfully capture the castle, a whole complex of military measures was necessary (the siege and starvation have already been mentioned above). One of the most labor-intensive, but at the same time extremely successful ways to overcome the castle’s defenses was undermining.

Undermining was done for two purposes - to provide troops with direct access to the castle's courtyard or to destroy a section of its wall.

Thus, during the siege of the Altwindstein castle in Northern Alsace in 1332, a brigade of sappers of 80 (!) people took advantage of the diversionary maneuvers of their troops (periodic short attacks on the castle) and over the course of 10 weeks made a long passage through solid rock into the south-eastern part of the fortress .

If the castle wall was not too large and had an unreliable foundation, then a tunnel was dug under its base, the walls of which were strengthened with wooden struts. Next, the spacers were set on fire - just under the wall. The tunnel was collapsing, the base of the foundation was sagging, and the wall above this place was falling apart.

Storming of the castle (14th century miniature).

Later, with the advent of gunpowder weapons, bombs were planted in tunnels under castle walls. To neutralize the undermining, the besieged sometimes dug counter-undermining. Enemy sappers were doused with boiling water, bees were released into the tunnel, feces were poured into it (and in ancient times, the Carthaginians released live crocodiles into Roman tunnels).

Curious devices were used to detect tunnels. For example, large copper bowls with balls inside were placed throughout the castle. If a ball in any bowl began to tremble, this was a sure sign that a tunnel was being mined nearby.

But the main argument in attacking the castle were siege engines - catapults and rams. The first were not much different from those catapults that were used by the Romans. These devices were equipped with a counterweight, which imparted the greatest force to the throwing arm. With proper dexterity of the “gun crew,” catapults were quite accurate weapons. They threw large, smoothly hewn stones, and the combat range (on average, several hundred meters) was regulated by the weight of the projectiles.

A type of catapult is a trebuchet.

Sometimes the catapults were loaded with barrels filled with flammable materials. To give the castle defenders a couple of pleasant minutes, catapults threw the severed heads of prisoners to them (especially powerful machines could even throw whole corpses over the wall).

Storming a castle using a mobile tower.

In addition to the usual ram, pendulum ones were also used. They were mounted on high mobile frames with a canopy and looked like a log suspended on a chain. The besiegers hid inside the tower and swung the chain, causing the log to hit the wall.

In response, the besieged lowered a rope from the wall, at the end of which steel hooks were attached. With this rope they caught the ram and tried to lift it up, depriving it of mobility. Sometimes an unwary soldier could get caught on such hooks.

Having overcome the rampart, broken the palisades and filled in the ditch, the attackers either stormed the castle using ladders or used tall wooden towers, the upper platform of which was flush with the wall (or even higher than it). These gigantic structures were doused with water to prevent the defenders from setting them on fire and were rolled up to the castle along a plank flooring. A heavy platform was thrown over the wall. The assault group climbed up the internal stairs, went out onto the platform and fought into the gallery of the fortress wall. Usually this meant that in a couple of minutes the castle would be taken.

Silent Sapa

Sapa (from the French sape, literally - hoe, saper - to dig) is a method of digging a ditch, trench or tunnel to approach its fortifications, used in the 16th-19th centuries. The switchback (quiet, secretive) and flying glanders are known. Work with a shift gland was carried out from the bottom of the original ditch without workers going to the surface, and with a flying gland - from the surface of the earth under the cover of a previously prepared protective embankment of barrels and bags of earth. In the 2nd half of the 17th century, specialists - sappers - appeared in the armies of a number of countries to perform such work.

The expression to act “on the sly” means: to sneak, slowly, unnoticed, to penetrate somewhere.

Fights on the castle stairs

From one floor of the tower it was possible to get to another only by a narrow and steep spiral staircase. The ascent along it was carried out only one after another - it was so narrow. At the same time, the warrior who went first could rely only on his own ability to fight, because the steepness of the turn was chosen in such a way that it was impossible to use a spear or long sword from behind the leader’s back. Therefore, the battles on the stairs were reduced to single combat between the defenders of the castle and one of the attackers. Namely the defenders, because they could easily replace each other, since there was a special extended area behind them.

In all castles, the stairs twist clockwise. There is only one castle with a reverse twist - the fortress of the Counts Wallenstein. When studying the history of this family, it was discovered that most of the men in it were left-handed. Thanks to this, historians realized that such a design of stairs greatly facilitates the work of the defenders. The most powerful blow with a sword can be delivered towards your left shoulder, and a shield in your left hand best covers your body from this direction. Only the defender has all these advantages. The attacker can only strike to the right side, but his striking hand will be pressed against the wall. If he puts his shield forward, he will almost lose the ability to use weapons.

Samurai castles

Himeji Castle.

We know the least about exotic castles - for example, Japanese ones.

Initially, samurai and their overlords lived on their estates, where, apart from the “yagura” watchtower and a small moat around the dwelling, there were no other defensive structures. In case of a protracted war, fortifications were erected in hard-to-reach areas of the mountains, where it was possible to defend against superior enemy forces.

Stone castles began to be built at the end of the 16th century, taking into account European achievements in fortification. An indispensable feature of a Japanese castle are wide and deep artificial ditches with steep slopes that surrounded it on all sides. Usually they were filled with water, but sometimes this function was performed by a natural water barrier - a river, lake, swamp.

Inside, the castle was a complex system of defensive structures, consisting of several rows of walls with courtyards and gates, underground corridors and labyrinths. All these structures were located around the central square of Honmaru, on which the feudal lord's palace and the high central tenshukaku tower were erected. The latter consisted of several gradually decreasing rectangular tiers with protruding tiled roofs and pediments.

Japanese castles, as a rule, were small - about 200 meters long and 500 wide. But among them there were also real giants. Thus, Odawara Castle occupied an area of ​​170 hectares, and the total length of its fortress walls reached 5 kilometers, which is twice the length of the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.

Ancient charm

Castles are still being built today. Those that were state property are often returned to the descendants of ancient families. Castles are a symbol of the influence of their owners. They are an example of an ideal compositional solution, which combines unity (defense considerations did not allow the picturesque distribution of buildings throughout the territory), multi-level buildings (main and secondary) and the utmost functionality of all components. Elements of castle architecture have already become archetypes - for example, a castle tower with battlements: its image sits in the subconscious of any more or less educated person.

French castle of Saumur (14th century miniature).

And finally, we love castles because they are simply romantic. Knightly tournaments, ceremonial receptions, vile conspiracies, secret passages, ghosts, treasures - when applied to castles, all this ceases to be a legend and turns into history. The expression “the walls remember” fits perfectly here: it seems that every stone of the castle breathes and hides a secret. I would like to believe that medieval castles will continue to maintain an aura of mystery - because without it, sooner or later they will turn into an old pile of stones.

N. I. Naryshkina - Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Executive Law, Vladimir Law Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia,

Candidate of Legal Sciences

In the Middle Ages, prisons became commonplace in the city-states of Italy. P. Spierenburg points out that the statutes of 37 out of 81 Italian cities mentioned prisons (Italian: carceri).

A well-known researcher of the history of the formation and development of the institution of prisons and imprisonment in the cities of medieval Italy, G. Geltner, points out that, starting from the 12th century, in Venice, which was, in fact, a city-state, a fairly comprehensive prison system developed, including:

I. State prisons (Italian: casoni), located in each of the six districts (Italian: sestieri) of the city. The word "casa" literally translates from Italian as "house". Accordingly, we can say that these were houses of detention.

• 2. Debt prison, located next to the Rialto Bridge and intended to hold insolvent debtors. The Venetian Charter of 1242 stipulated that debtors should initially, for 30 days, be limited in freedom of movement to the central areas of Venice; they were prohibited from crossing the bridges that separated this area from other areas of the city. If debtors did not pay within the specified time or violated the boundaries of their stay and travel routes, they were subject to imprisonment. This restriction of spatial freedom was a kind of “open prison” and was intended, on the one hand, to prevent the debtor from escaping, on the other hand, it gave him a chance to earn or find the money he needed, and on the third, a situation in which which the debtor found himself in quickly became known to his neighbors, which could increase public pressure on him and force him to pay the debt, because the inability to repay the debt was considered a disgrace in the eyes of public opinion. In Venice, unlike many other European states, private arrests of debtors were legalized, but there was no private imprisonment. That is, the creditor could demand the arrest of the debtor or arrest him personally, but could not keep him in custody, for example, in his own home.
• 3. Prison cells that functioned in and around the Doge's Palace (Italian: Palazzo Ducale), starting in 1173. During the XIII-XIV centuries. Additional work was carried out inside the palace, as a result of which the places of imprisonment occupied the entire first floor of the southern wing of the palace, and several cells were equipped under the roof of the eastern wing for the imprisonment of female heretics who had previously been kept in nearby monasteries. The practice of monastic imprisonment of women was suspended in the 90s. XIII century due to the fact that many of them were prostitutes and invited their clients to the monasteries, which caused the indignation of the nuns. Somewhat later, the Venetian Council of Ten (Italian: Consiglio dei Died) - the governing body of the Venetian Republic, founded by decree of the Great Council in June 1310, decided to commission (or expand existing) cells on the top floor of the palace, which were used as a place of detention for persons under investigation.
• 4. Prison cells in monasteries. In general, deprivation of liberty was practiced in church judicial practice in relation to errant clergymen, starting from the 4th century. This was a common occurrence before the creation of secular prisons. Monastic imprisonment was also applied to the laity, and this practice especially expanded from the 13th century thanks to the development of the Papal Inquisition, which often sentenced heretics to prison. Pope Boniface VIII formally introduced imprisonment into church law in 1298 as an appropriate punishment.

That is, medieval Venetian prisons served as places of detention, pre-trial detention, both for secular crimes and for crimes against the church, and were also intended to contain insolvent debtors and political opponents.

As for the organization of the activities of Venetian prisons, G. Geltner initially characterizes it as semi-improvised, corresponding to very limited legislation in this area, which, while providing for the grounds for imprisonment, paid little attention to the issues of the functioning of prisons and the determination of specific terms of imprisonment (up to the beginning XIV century). Since most of the Venetian places of detention were located in the Doge's Palace, it was much easier to attract palace guards to protect prisoners rather than create independent structural units that ensured compliance with the requirements of the regime.

If guards were specifically appointed to supervise the behavior of a prisoner in custody, then the latter himself had to pay them a salary, as was done in 1275, when a certain Simone Steno, as an oathbreaker, was sentenced to pay a fine of 300 lire within 15 days. The Great Council (Italian Maggior Consiglio) - the governing body of the Venetian Republic, which existed since 1172 - decided that in case of failure to pay the fine properly and on time, the convicted person should be imprisoned in the great prison (Italian maior career) of the Doge's Palace in order to ensuring the payment of his debt with the imposition of the obligation to pay the salaries of the guards assigned to him, which can be regarded as an aggravating element of the imprisonment of the insolvent debtor.

The Doge and members of the Grand Council were required to inspect the prisons on a weekly basis, more for the purpose of monitoring the judicial expediency of detention than for the purpose of monitoring the conditions of the prisoners and the behavior of the guards. Later, in connection with the establishment of certain terms of imprisonment in regulatory legal acts, divided into urgent and life (eternal), an increase in the number of prison facilities, the growing interest of judges in the conditions of detention of prisoners in prisons, the growth of their well-being, including through charity, the system of monitoring the functioning of prisons has changed, and the mechanism for recruiting prison staff has been transformed.

So, shortly before 1250, the “lords of the night” (“lords of the night”, “lords of the night”) appeared - nobles elected from each of the six districts of Venice and monitoring what was happening in the city at night. From 1297, the “lords of the night” were required to visit prisoners weekly, which was previously the responsibility of the Doge and members of the Great Council, and in 1321 they were responsible for paying the salaries of the guards of the prisons, divided into upper and lower.

The statute of 1339 first mentions the position of chief or capitano of the lower prisons, along with whom the guards served. The prison staff numbered 6-8 people, and wages gradually increased from 4 to 5 liras per month. The position of notary was introduced into the staff of prisons only in 1343. In the upper prisons, mainly used by the Council of Ten for the detention of suspects and accused of crimes, the number of guards by 1398 was 6 people, one from each district of the city, with monthly salary of 13 liras.

The legal status of prisoners in medieval Venetian prisons was characterized by the following features:

• - the principle of separate detention of prisoners was observed:
  • a) men and women. Women's prisons were built in Venice starting in the 1360s;
  • b) sick (weak, insane) and healthy. In the 1320s. in Venice, the surgeon Ricobaldo treated prisoners for free, despite his poverty. In Venetian prisons by 1400, sick prisoners were usually placed in more comfortable cells, but were not released on health grounds;
  • c) convicted criminals, debtors and persons under investigation. They were to be housed on different floors of the Doge's Palace: the upper and lower prisons. But the separation was not always observed in practice, despite the efforts of judges who demanded in 1309 that criminals sentenced to imprisonment be kept separately. Despite legislative efforts, power, wealth, the influence of relatives, and not the severity of the crime committed, influenced placement in prisons;
• - prisoners were exempted from paying fees and charges for entry, exit and their detention in prisons, regardless of social status or grounds for detention;
• - prisoners were subjected to torture, which was actively practiced against them by the staff of Venetian prisons in the 13th-14th centuries;
• - the authorities of Venice, starting in 1442 (following Padua, Vincenza, Verona, Ravenna), appointed a public defender to prisoners, but in general legal assistance was available to prisoners throughout the late XIII-XV centuries;
• - Venetian authorities rarely released prisoners on religious holidays; some prisoners could regain their freedom by posting bail and providing an obligation to appear in court. They could also be released from prison in order to combat the over-limit of the special contingent. For example, to empty the overcrowded prisons of Venice in 1331, the Council of Ten ordered the release of all debtors who had been imprisoned for more than two years;
• - poor prisoners could receive food from the commune, begging for alms or charity;
• - the involvement of prisoners in labor in medieval Venetian prisons was very limited

The Clink Prison Museum is one of the saddest places of medieval England and one of the most popular British attractions of our time. The Clink was a prison located in the Southwark area that operated from the early 12th century to the late 18th century. Throughout its history, the prison was owned by the bishops, so the lion's share of the entire mass of criminals were Protestants and Catholics who had committed crimes.

Klink translated from English slang means “prison,” so the name of this institution: Klink Prison Museum is a complete tautology.

It should be noted that maintaining a prison in those years was very profitable, especially one that was located near the central brothels of London. At the same time, the church did not fight the existence of prostitution in any way - on the contrary, it enriched itself at the expense of fined clients or the harlots themselves. The prison was specially divided into two parts: men were kept in one, women in the other.

Around the middle of the 15th century, brothels began to close rapidly, so that the flow of money into the pockets of bishops began to weaken. However, the clergy acted like real businessmen. Without being at all confused, they introduced mandatory payment for imprisonment, turning all prisoners into debtors. For example, the price of food doubled, so that people were forced to give every last penny so as not to die of hunger. And when their own money ran out, friends and acquaintances in the wild began to pay for food.

Prison Museum in London - the atmosphere of the Middle Ages, precision in detail

The rebellion in this prison was raised only once - in 1450, but even that was suppressed with lightning speed, and the prison buildings were only even better fortified.

This state of affairs continued until 1780, when the prison completely burned down. Only the spacious basements survived, where today the Klink Prison Museum is located.

The prison museum in London reflects its history and tells about the conditions in which prisoners were kept. In addition, here you can see with your own eyes the holding cells and instruments of punishment. Everything is reproduced with precision down to the smallest detail. This place is also famous for the fact that I personally came here