Gallows from 16th century discovered by archaeologists in Grenoble, France

French authorities have made a grisly discovery: They found a 16th-century gallows where condemned prisoners were displayed as a warning to others.

The discovery, which was made in 2024 but not announced until December, was carried out by Inrap, France’s national preventive archeology institution.

The team focused on an archaeological site in Grenoble, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France, ahead of redevelopment work on the city’s Esplanade.

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In a press release published last month, archaeologists said they were surprised by the gallows, which were built during the Protestant Reformation and targeted “rebels against royal authority, including Protestant opponents of the crown.”

“Among them were Benoît Croyet, who was accused of participating in an attack on Grenoble in 1573, and the Huguenot leader Charles du Puy Montbrun, whose head was cut off and displayed in the region in 1575,” the statement said.

Archaeologists initially thought the structure was a religious building, Inrap said, until they discovered it was an area “used to display the bodies of executed prisoners.”

“Archaeologists unearthed a square-shaped masonry structure as well as ten burial pits dating back to the 16th century,” the organization’s translated statement said.

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“The graves contained at least 32 people, mostly men and a few women, often buried together in groups of two to eight.”

The gallows dates back to as early as 1544 and featured eight stone pillars; this was a sign that it was controlled by royalty rather than seigneurial or feudal rule.

The history of the gallows dates back to 1544. It was connected with the punishment of rebels against the French crown. (Anne-Gaëlle Corbara, Inrap)

Medieval gallows examples excavated in France “remain rare,” researcher Nicolas Minvielle-Larousse of Inrap told Fox News Digital.

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“Compared to several known cases, the Grenoble gallows stands out for its square plan with eight columns, reflecting its high status within the criminal justice hierarchy in the kingdom,” Minvielle-Larousse said.

“It was under royal authority and administered by the Parliament of the Dauphiné.”

According to French officials, the discovery was made in 2024 but was not made public until December. (Nordine Saadi, Inrap)

However, the historian noted that gallows were “very common” in Europe until the early modern period.

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“So every criminal court can have its own gallows, whether it belongs to the royal jurisdiction (Grenoble is an example) or to the seigneurial courts more generally,” he said.

Minvielle-Larousse added that many burials in the region were “carried out without any care,” which raises more questions for researchers to solve.

“Compared with several known cases, the Grenoble gallows stands out with its square plan with eight columns,” one researcher said. (Nordine Saadi, Inrap)

“Post-excavation studies provided conclusive evidence for identification: the organization of the burials, traces of violence observed on some individuals, and construction accounts referring to the gallows.”

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Minvielle-Larousse said she hoped the excavation would contribute to the emerging field of research and that it would also shed light on “anthropological ideas about funerary practices in past and even present-day societies.”

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“What is a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ death? What material signs are left to make a bad death visible? How does worldly condemnation relate to beliefs about the afterlife?” he thought.