Ransom Room - Trial and Execution of Atahualpa (1533)

Trial and Execution of Atahualpa (1533)

Pizarro decided to charge Atahualpa with 12 crimes, the most important being attempting to revolt against the Spanish, practicing idolatry and murdering Huascar. Atahualpa was found guilty of all 12 charges and was sentenced to execution by burning. Atahualpa offered Pizarro to buy his liberty by filling the room where he was kept prisoner with gold and the two following rooms with silver, up to the level of the reach of his arm.

After being led to the place of his execution, Atahualpa begged for his life. Friar Valverde, who had earlier offered the Bible to Atahualpa, intervened again, telling Atahualpa that if he agreed to convert to Christianity he would persuade the rest to commute his sentence.

Atahualpa agreed to be baptized into the Christian faith and, in the end, was strangled instead of being burned, or rather was strangled just before being burned: this was the mercy the Inquisition granted to heretics that repented of their heresy. Atahualpa died in August of 1533.

Various sources claim the so-called "ransom room" alleged to have been filled with gold was only where Atahualpa was held prisoner, and the real room filled with gold was located at an unconfirmed location.

After Atahualpa was executed, the "Tahuantinsuyo" (Inca Empire) is considered to have reached its end, giving way to the further Spanish conquest of Peru. During 2004, approximately 60,000 tourists visited the site of the ransom room in Cajamarca, Peru.