Place de l'Estrapade

The Place de l'Estrapade in the Saint-Cyprien neighborhood of Toulouse is a narrow, irregularly shaped triangle that meets the Grande-rue Saint-Nicolas and the rue Réclusane. This square carries a name from the sixteenth century that reflects a grim period in judicial history. It commemorates the estrapade, a form of public punishment where a condemned person was hoisted into the air by a rope and then dropped repeatedly. This method was typically reserved for soldiers and was meant to cause intense pain through dislocated limbs and fractures without immediately ending a life.