The Pillory, also popularly known as "picota" in Portugal, is a stone column placed in a public place in a town or village where they exposed and punished criminals in old days. The pillory was also a evidence and instrument of feudal jurisdiction given to bishops, and monasteries.
The pillories were, at least since the late fifteenth century, considered the standard or symbol of municipal liberty.
It seems that before the fifteenth century some executions were done in pillories. But thereafter there is no evidence, at least in relation to executions, which were done in the gallows after having exposed the "criminal" in the pillory for people's knowledge.
In Portugal, the pillories were located always in front of the village city hall, since the twelfth century. Many had, at the top, a small house-shaped gatehouse, made of iron bars, where criminals were exposed to public shame. In other towns, the prisoners were tied to the iron rings and flogged or maimed, depending on the seriousness of the offense and the customs of the time.
