A patibular fork was a gallows that consisted of two or more columns of stone, with an horizontal beam of wood resting on top. Placed high and visible from the main public thoroughfare, it signalled the seat of high justice, the number of stone columns indicating the holder's title.[1]
Those condemned to death were hanged from the wooden beam, their bodies left on the gallows for passers-by to see and for crows to devour.
Although sometimes used in the singular, the term "patibular forks" is usually written in the plural.
- ^ Viollet-Le-Duc (1861, p. 553)