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28-522: A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from the French oublier , meaning 'to forget') or bottle dungeon is a basement room which is accessible only from a hatch or hole (an angstloch ) in

56-685: A door in the ceiling) were built without latrines, and since the gatehouses at Alnwick and Cockermouth provided accommodation it is unlikely that the rooms would have been used to hold prisoners. An alternative explanation was proposed, suggesting that these were strong-rooms where valuables were stored. Oubliettes and dungeons were a favorite topic of nineteenth century gothic novels or historical novels , where they appeared as symbols of hidden cruelty and tyrannical power. Usually found under medieval castles or abbeys , they were used by villainous characters to persecute blameless characters. In Alexandre Dumas 's La Reine Margot , Catherine de Medici

84-475: A high ceiling. The word dungeon comes from French donjon (also spelled dongeon ), which means " keep ", the main tower of a castle. The first recorded instance of the word in English was near the beginning of the 14th century when it held the same meaning as donjon . The earlier meaning of "keep" is still in use for academics, although in popular culture, it has come to mean a cell or "oubliette". Though it

112-524: A minimum standard for personal living space in prison establishments is 6 m of living space for a single-occupancy cell or 4 m (43 sq ft) of living space per prisoner in a multiple-occupancy cell for the prevention of torture and inhuman treatment. A March 1991 federal government study of U.S. prisons reported that: "Until recently, the Federal Bureau of Prisons based its determination of rated capacity in existing facilities on

140-422: A night, these cells are considered cleaner and quieter, and some of them offer extra facilities and\or privileges. Often, different standards for cells exist in a single country and even in a single jail. Some of those cells are reserved for "isolation", where a convict is kept alone in a cell as punishment method. Some isolation cells contain no furnishing and no services at all. Garderobe Garderobe

168-499: A political solution. Noble prisoners were not generally held in dungeons, but lived in some comfort in castle apartments. The Tower of London is famous for housing political prisoners , and Pontefract Castle at various times held Thomas of Lancaster (1322), Richard II (1400), Earl Rivers (1483), Richard Scrope , Archbishop of York (1405), James I of Scotland (1405–1424) and Charles, Duke of Orléans (1417–1430). Purpose-built prison chambers in castles became more common after

196-405: A powerful metaphor in a variety of contexts. Dungeons, as a whole, have become associated with underground complexes of cells and torture chambers. As a result, the number of true dungeons in castles is often exaggerated to interest tourists. Many chambers described as dungeons or oubliettes were in fact water-cisterns or even latrines . An example of what might be popularly termed an "oubliette"

224-648: A prison is called single-celling or "single-bunking" (as in " bunk bed "). The practice of putting two persons to a cell is referred to as "double-bunking." In many countries, the cells are dirty and have very few facilities. Other countries may house many offenders in prisons, making the cells crowded. In the United Kingdom, cells in a police station are the responsibility of the custody sergeant , who also logs each detainee and allocates him or her an available cell. Custody sergeants also ensure cells are clean and as germ-free as possible, in accordance with

252-416: A single-bunking standard, which currently calls for providing each inmate with at least 35 square feet of unencumbered space in a single cell. This essentially translates to a cell size of roughly 65 sq ft (6.0 m ).* "In practice, however, BOP has accommodated inmate population increases by double-bunking inmates in virtually all its facilities and in cells... of varying sizes, but generally in

280-643: A torture chamber. The earliest use of oubliette in French dates back to 1374, but its earliest adoption in English is Walter Scott 's Ivanhoe in 1819: "The place was utterly dark—the oubliette, as I suppose, of their accursed convent." Few Norman keeps in English castles originally contained prisons, which were more common in Scotland. Imprisonment was not a usual punishment in the Middle Ages , with most prisoners awaiting an imminent trial, sentence or

308-530: A window that allows the prisoner to be observed from the outside. Furnishings and fixtures inside the cell are constructed so that they cannot be easily broken, and are anchored to the walls or floor. Stainless steel lavatories and commodes are also used. This prevents vandalism or the making of weapons. There are a number of prison and prison cell configurations, from simple police-station holding cells to massive cell blocks in larger correctional facilities. The practice of assigning only one inmate to each cell in

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336-400: Is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The Oxford English Dictionary gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy". The word derives from the French garde de robes , meaning "robes (or clothing) protector". Its most common use now is as a term for a castle toilet . Garderobe is

364-422: Is also used to refer to a medieval or Renaissance toilet or a close stool . In a medieval castle, a garderobe was usually a simple hole discharging to the outside into a cesspit (akin to a pit latrine ) or the moat (like a fish pond toilet), depending on the structure of the building. Such toilets were often placed inside a small chamber, leading by association to the use of the term garderobe to describe

392-429: Is called a dungeon crawl . Near the beginning of Jack Vance 's high-fantasy Lyonesse Trilogy (1983–1989), King Casmir of Lyonesse commits Prince Aillas of Troicinet, who he believes to be a vagabond, to an oubliette for the crime of having seduced his daughter. After some months, the resourceful prince fashions a ladder from the bones of earlier prisoners and the rope by which he had been lowered, and escapes. In

420-542: Is portrayed gloating over a victim in the oubliettes of the Louvre . Dungeons are common elements in modern fantasy literature, related tabletop , and video games . The most famous examples are the various Dungeons & Dragons media. In this context, the word "dungeon" has come to be used broadly to describe any labyrinthine complex (castle, cave system, etc) rather than a prison cell or torture chamber specifically. A role-playing game involving dungeon exploration

448-439: Is the particularly claustrophobic cell in the dungeon of Warwick Castle 's Caesar's Tower, in central England. The access hatch consists of an iron grille. Even turning around (or moving at all) would be nearly impossible in this tiny chamber. However, the tiny chamber that is described as the oubliette, is in reality a short shaft which opens up into a larger chamber with a latrine shaft entering it from above. This suggests that

476-504: Is uncertain, both dungeon and donjon are thought to derive from the Middle Latin word dominus , meaning "lord" or "master". In French, the term donjon still refers to a "keep", and the English term "dungeon" refers mostly to oubliette in French. Donjon is therefore a false friend to dungeon (although the game Dungeons & Dragons is titled Donjons et Dragons in its French editions). An oubliette (same origin as

504-616: The Human Rights Act of 1998 . In the United States, the standard cell is equipped with either a ledge or a steel bedstead that holds a mattress. A one-piece sink/toilet constructed of welded, putatively stainless steel is also provided. Bars typify older jails, while newer ones have doors that typically feature a small safety glass window and, often, a metal flap that can be opened to serve meals. A limited number of United States prisons offer upgrades. Costing around $ 100

532-469: The 12th century, when they were built into gatehouses or mural towers. Some castles had larger provision for prisoners, such as the prison tower at Caernarfon Castle . Although many real dungeons are simply a single plain room with a heavy door or with access only from a hatchway or trapdoor in the floor of the room above, the use of dungeons for torture , along with their association to common human fears of being trapped underground, have made dungeons

560-456: The 50 to 70 square foot range." In the United States old prison cells are usually about 6 by 8 feet (1.8 by 2.4 m) in dimension which is 48 sq ft (4.5 m ) , (moreover, however, American Correctional Association standards call for a minimum of 70 sq ft (6.5 m ), with steel or brick walls and one solid or barred door that locks from the outside. Many modern prison cells are pre-cast . Solid doors typically have

588-448: The French oublier , meaning "to forget") is a basement room which is accessible only from a hatch or hole (an angstloch ) in a high ceiling. The use of "donjons" evolved over time, sometimes to include prison cells, which could explain why the meaning of "dungeon" in English evolved over time from being a prison within the tallest, most secure tower of the castle into meaning a cell, and by extension, in popular use, an oubliette or even

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616-451: The French word for " wardrobe ", a lockable place where clothes and other items are stored. According to medieval architecture scholar Frank Bottomley, garderobes were "Properly, not a latrine or privy but a small room or large cupboard, usually adjoining the chamber [bedroom] or solar [living room] and providing safe-keeping for valuable clothes and other possessions of price: cloth, jewels, spices, plate and money." The term garderobe

644-791: The cell). However, in shared or dormitory accommodations, it recommends a minimum of 3.4 m (37 sq ft) per person, including in cells where bunk beds are used. Prison cells vary in size internationally from 2 m (22 sq ft) in Guinea , 3 m (32 sq ft) in Poland, 9 m (97 sq ft) in Germany to 10 m (110 sq ft) in Norway and 12 m (130 sq ft) in Switzerland. Council of Europe (Strasbourg, 15 December 2015) call for

672-399: The chamber is in fact a partially back-filled drain. The positioning of the supposed oubliette within the larger dungeon, situated in a small alcove, is typical of garderobe arrangement within medieval buildings. These factors perhaps point to this feature being the remnants of a latrine rather than a cell for holding prisoners. Footage of the inside of this chamber can be seen in episode 3 of

700-642: The first series of Secrets of Great British Castles . A "bottle dungeon" is sometimes simply another term for an oubliette. It has a narrow entrance at the top and sometimes the room below is even so narrow that it would be impossible to lie down but in other designs the actual cell is larger. The identification of dungeons and rooms used to hold prisoners is not always a straightforward task. Alnwick Castle and Cockermouth Castle , both near England's border with Scotland, had chambers in their gatehouses which have often been interpreted as oubliettes. However, this has been challenged. These underground rooms (accessed by

728-603: The killer is described as having an oubliette. In the Robert A. Heinlein novel Stranger in a Strange Land , the term "oubliette" is used to refer to a trash disposal much like the "memory holes" in Nineteen Eighty-Four . Prison cell The International Committee of the Red Cross recommends that cells be at least 5.4 m (58 sq ft) in size for a single cell accommodation (one person in

756-514: The musical fantasy film Labyrinth , director Jim Henson includes a scene in which the heroine Sarah is freed from an oubliette by the dwarf Hoggle, who defines it for her as "a place you put people... to forget about 'em!" In the Thomas Harris novel The Silence of the Lambs , Clarice makes a descent into Gumb's basement dungeon labyrinth in the narrative's climactic scene, where

784-532: The rooms. Many can still be seen in Norman and medieval castles and fortifications, for example at Bürresheim Castle in Germany, where three garderobes are still visible. They became obsolete with the introduction of indoor plumbing . A description of the garderobe at Donegal Castle indicates that while it was in use, it was believed that ammonia —a byproduct of excretion —would protect visitors' coats and cloaks from moths or fleas. In European public places,

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