For ABC Wednesday, P is for the Pranger of Pinkafeld.
The oldest remaining building in this Austrian village was built in 1600 and served as the Rathaus or "city hall" for a long time, but now it houses the Pinkafeld Stadtmuseum.
The museum is really a labor of love, and I'll show you the inside in coming days.
But first looks what's OUTSIDE -- the Pranger, erected in 1804!
Wikipedia explains it as
a Central European physical punishment device related to the stocks and the pillory. The Middle Low German word means "something that pinches badly".
The pranger chained the victim's neck to a pair of leg restraints fastened around the ankles. Often the chain was short so that the offender was placed in an uncomfortable half-kneeling position.In another type of pranger (pillory), the condemned person was tied to a column that stood in the town center for public view.The pranger was only used for public humiliation as punishment, not for painful interrogation or coercion.
But why the sword you ask?
It has to do with Blutgericht (Blood Court) and Jus gladii (high justice).
In the Holy Roman Empire this referred to the right of a Vogt (a reeve) to hold a criminal court inflicting bodily punishment, including the death penalty.
In Latin ius gladii literally means "the right of the sword," referring to the legal authority of an individual or group to execute someone for a capital offense, i.e. high justice.
The sword of justice (and hand of justice) are regalia that (often proudly and publicly) symbolize this highest penal authority.