Death By Gibbet
Death By Gibbet Regardless of the mode of execution, until 1858 the bodies of executed criminals in Serbia were almost always publicly displayed on wheels or on „hangers“ (visilica) The wheel, in all respects like an ordinary cart-wheel, was made specially for each execution. According to a contemporary description: „Together with the wheel, they make a wooden pole of just over one hvat (= 1.9 meters) in length, with a pointed tip just like a spit roast. The pole is fixed in the ground and the wheel is fitted to it so that the pointed end of the pole protrudes some 40 centimetres above the wheel. After the prisoner is executed, he is raised onto the wheel and impaled, face up, on the pointed end of the pole. The body stays like that for a number of weeks or until it is decomposed, after which it is taken down and buried“. In order to facilitate the impalement, the body would first be pierced with a sword The hanger is a rope or a chain used to hang the executed body to a tree o...