WELCOME TO THE PRISON MUSEUM OF SWEDEN
A MUSEUM IN TWO PRISONS
The old Castle and County Jail of Gävleborg County anno 1732
and the former penitentiary anno
WELCOME TO THE PRISON MUSEUM OF SWEDEN
A MUSEUM IN TWO PRISONS
The old Castle and County Jail of Gävleborg County anno 1732
and the former penitentiary anno 1847
“Torture and exemplary punishment” – an exhibition in the Old Castle and County Jail
Our exhibition in the Castle Jail is housed in the building’s original dungeons. Here you can see how criminals were tortured in public when corporal punishment was generally in use. The purpose with these punishments was to humiliate and torture criminals in public; and at the same time to prevent people from committing crimes. The more severe the committed crime was the harder one was tortured.
Death penalty was often preceded and/or followed by various other humiliating punishments. It could happen that e.g. they cut off the convict’s right hand before beheading him and afterwards quartered the corpse the parts of which they put on a breaking wheel.
Other, milder form of punishment was to sentence a criminal to “ride” the so-called wooden-horse which had a sharp-edged back. The horse was usually placed on public view on the main square, where the convict had to sit for a few hours. Not only did they pinion him but also tied heavy weights to his legs to make the torture more uncomfortable and painful.
Another instrument of torture was the so-called “Spanish violin”, used especially in military towns, which the soldiers’ wives, servants or children who didn’t behave had to bear around their necks, standing on the main square for two hours at the most.
(The models on the photos are on the scale of 1:10)
Apart from different sceneries of punishment, shackles, instruments of torture and execution you can see life-size dummies that represent criminals from the past. Step in the cells and try to imagine what it must have felt like to be behind bars! You can nearly hear flies buzz, feel fleas bite, or smell the stink coming from the latrine pot or from the people who once sat here jailed.
There were two underground dungeons in this jail, one of which is now restored. Those who refused to admit their crimes were locked in here and lived on only bread and water as well as those unable to pay the fine they were sentenced to. You can take a look at one of them through a plastic window on the floor.
Unemployed people and people on the loose were sent for hard labour. Unlike women condemned for severe crimes, men were not sent to houses of correction but to fortresses from a few years to a lifetime.
After your journey back in time of the pillory, you can enjoy a few minutes of liberty on your way to the other part of the museum, the penitentiary. Shake off the feeling of discomfort that you might have been affected with during your visit at the Castle Jail. But do not forget our principal message:
THIS HISTORY IS NOT ONLY OURS AND IS NOT ONLY HISTORY EITHER
“Hotel Hamilton” - an exhibition in the former penitentiary of Gävleborg County
When the penitentiary system was introduced in the 1840’s, corporal punishment and humiliating in public were substituted with imprisonment and hard labour. Convicts disappeared from public spotlight and were kept isolated from society instead. The dark and wretched dungeons were replaced by architectural masterpieces which reflected the idea behind the new prison system. The keywords were: supervision, control and discipline.
The new way of treating criminals was called The Philadelphia System, which was a penal system that put solitary prisoners into cells to contemplate their misdeeds and to plot a new lif