Torture Museum Amsterdam

More than 40 instruments of punishment and torture reveal the darker side of European history at Amsterdam’s Torture Museum. Located on the Singel canal, the museum explores how authorities used physical punishment, public humiliation and forced confessions from the Middle Ages into the early modern period. The collection includes devices such as thumbscrews, pillories and the guillotine, accompanied by historical engravings and explanations in eight languages. Rather than displaying these objects for shock value alone, the exhibition places them in the context of past systems of justice, showing how punishment reflected the power of governments and the beliefs of their time.