Immurement was used as a form of execution following someone being sentenced to death
for a crime.
It was also used for human sacrifice throughout the centuries, and also as a form of torture.
The method was where people were enclosed in a very tight and small confinement such
as a room which would be sealed up, or even a small box such as a coffin.
This would then lead to someone being left to die from starvation or dehydration, and
is different from being buried alive as the victim would die from suffocation.
It was a very tough form of death as someone would have to literally wait for their death
and for their ordeal to be over.
But what is the story behind it?
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One of the earliest accounts of the method comes from the Roman Empire where it was used
as punishment for a group of women known as the Vestal Virgins, who took strict vows of
celibacy.
They devoted themselves to tending a fire honouring the Goddess Vesta, and if one of
the women broke their vow of celibacy, they would be killed and buried inside the city.
This happened and an account of the offending woman’ immurement alive states, ‘When
condemned by the college of pontifices, she was stripped of her vittae and other badges
of office, was scourged, attired like a corpse, placed in a closed litter, borne through the
forum attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies of a real funeral to a
rising ground called the Campus Sceleratus.
This was located just within the city walls, gate.
A small vault underground had been previously prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and
a table with a little food.
The pontifex maximus, having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered a secret prayer,
opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placed her on the steps of the ladder
which gave access to the subterranean cell.
He delivered her over to the common executioner and his assistants, who led her down, drew
up the ladder, and having filled the pit with earth until the surface was level with the
surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of all the tributes of respect usually paid
to the spirits of the departed.’
There were around 10 accounts of Vestal Virgins being immured for breaking their vows.
Immurement was also used during the Middle Ages and was used by the Roman Catholic Church
who punished monks and nuns who broke their vows, or challenged the teachings of the church.
These were meant to not die within days, but were instead intended to live long lives of
isolation away from anyone, refusing to have contact with the outside world.
They would only have small amounts of food dropped through small passages on a daily
basis.
This led to many different skeletal remains of people who were immured being found in
the following centuries in countries such as England, Italy, Germany and France.
People were simply forced into small chambers, and were then sealed in these after the entrances
were being bricked up and so on.
For example, in the 1800s a bridge in Bremen in Germany was demolished, and found was the
immured remains of a child inside the foundations.
Also in a church in Lincolnshire in England, the remains of an immured individual was found.
Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian Countess often compared with Vlad the Impaler, was
immured herself in a number of rooms in 1610.
She had been sentence to this for the death of a number of girls and some estimates place
her for murdering hundreds of victims.
She died four years later after her immurement was sealed, dying of causes other than starvation
as her rooms were often well supplied with food.
There are many different accounts of Immurement.
One states, ‘In the case of Jeanne, widow of B. de la Tour, a nun of Lespenasse, in
1246, who had committed acts of heresy, and had prevaricated in her confession, the sentence
was confinement in a separate cell in her own convent, where no one was to enter or
see her, her food being pushed in through an opening left for the purpose—in fact,
the living tomb known as the "in pace”.’
Another account states, ‘At Lodi in 1662 Sister Antonia Margherita Limera stood trial
for having introduced a man into her cell and entertained him for a few days; she was
sentenced to be walled in alive on a diet of bread and water.’
It had been used in Asia as early as 2500 BC, where a number of burials allude to immurement.
However in Persia it was a tradition that it’s believed was even used very recently.
An account from Persia states, ‘Another sad sight to be seen in the desert sometimes,
are brick pillars in which some unfortunate victim is walled up alive ... The victim
is put into the pillar, which is half built up in readiness; then if the executioner is
merciful he will cement quickly up to the face, and death comes speedily.
But sometimes a small amount of air is allowed to permeate through the bricks, and in this
case the torture is cruel and the agony prolonged.
Men bricked up in this way have been heard groaning and calling for water at the end
of three days.’
It was used in other countries also, and was used in Mongolia as recent as the early 1900s,
and in coffin form.
One account says, ‘the prisons and dungeons of the Far Eastern country contain a number
of refined Chinese shut up for life in heavy iron-bound coffins, which do not permit them
to sit upright or lie down.
These prisoners see daylight for only a few minutes daily when the food is thrown into
their coffins through a small hole.’
Whether it was inside of a coffin, or inside of a cell walled within castles or priories
and buildings, Immurement would have been incredibly tragic.
It would have been sad and brutal with the victim simply waiting for their own death,
and it was similar to an oubliette where someone was simply forgotten and left to die.
What is also sad is that examples of immurement can be found today inside some of the walls
in some structures, which means many of these stories have yet to be told.
It was used all over the world, and immurement was incredibly disturbing.
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