If you should find yourself in Bruges for a day or two, you’ll no doubt want to check out some of the sights and some of the museums. Now, of course you could choose to head to the Historium. But if you want to learn about the darker side of history, I’d thoroughly recommend you check out the Torture Museum. Be warned though as this place isn’t for the squeamish and you may want to reconsider taking your children there…and at the very least reconsider how you’ve raised your children if either you or the child want to go to such a macabre place!
Now, just to be clear, the Torture museum isn’t likely to give you nightmares and after having left there we headed straight to a Dutch speaking McDonalds and had chicken and beef without the museum putting us off our meat.
The museum isn’t huge and even if you take your time to read every display it should only take about half an hour to explore. If you just were to walk through and not stop to read or take photos you’ll probably be done inside 10 minutes. For the size it is, which has you defend down stairs into a dungeon like atmosphere it does lack a fair amount in.
One thing that did strike me, and fortunately I don’t mean literally strike me is that some of the exhibits seemed genuinely dangerous. There was a spikey tool on the wall which kinda looked like Satan’s back scratcher which I genuinely saw as something you could easily trip into and impale your face on. Likewise I ventured to stand inside the iron maiden for video and photos to be taken and upon doing it realised how it may have been advisable for there to be a barrier up to prevent people from doing this and getting their entry into the Darwin Awards.
There were examples of both female and male chastity belts, the latter of which I’d never knew existed. There was also a wooden horse device which from my understanding of how it works is the ultimate wedgie device.
Some of the mannequins were less than convincing, and then there were some that looks like reject wax models for John Hurt and this guy who I couldn’t think quite which actor he looked like. I’m thinking someone from the Police Academy films or maybe Verruca’s dad from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
Seeing the exhibits at the torture museum really hits home how cruel humans can be to one another. It’s ghastly to see the variety of ways people were stretched, crushed, boiled, steamed, impaled and in other ways inhumanely butchered.
Unfortunately the very existence of such a museum shows how people have a morbid curiosity and this museum is like being at a chamber of horrors. Fans who like horror films or scary video games may get a thrill the sense of creepiness there. That all of the exhibits are based on real history does add a different layer to the experience than if it were based on fictional boogeymen like Freddy and Jason.
The exhibits and mannequins mostly speak for themselves, but there is info written about all of the devices of terror available in multiple languages.
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