Pankrác Prison

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Pankrác Prison, officially Prague Pankrác Remand Prison (Vazební věznice Praha Pankrác in Czech), is a prison in Prague, Czech Republic. It is located southeast of city centre in Pankrác, not far from Pražského povstání metro station on Line C.

1 History
2 The present
3 Some people imprisoned or executed in Pankrác
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

The prison was built in 1885-1889 in order to replace the obsolete St Wenceslas Prison (Svatováclavská trestnice), which used to stand between Charles Square and the Vltava River. The site for the new prison was out of city limits, amidst of fields above Nusle suburb, in the time of its construction. Neverthless, the expanding Prague encompassed the prison within several decades. A huge building of court was added to the facility in 1930s. During Nazi occupation in 1939-1945 thousands of Czech people, from members of the Resistance to black marketeers, were detained here before having been sent to execution, to another prison within Germany or to concentration camp. In spring 1943 the Nazis started to carry out executions directly inside the facility, where three cells had been adapted to this purpose. Since April 5, 1943 to April 26, 1945 the total number of 1,079 people were beheaded with guillotine in Pankrác. The three rooms of this bloody purpose (colloquially called sekyrárna, which means the axe room in Czech) have been preserved (incl. the execution device) and serve as memorial, which is occasionally accessible to schools and public. [1] In the last decades before abolition of capital punishment in Czechslovakia vast majority [2] of executions (by hanging) took place here, the last in 1989.

[edit] The present

According to an official report [3] of Prison Service the Pankrác Prison currently serves as a house of detention for accused males, and partly as a prison for sentenced males. The facility is designed for 858 inmates, of whom 468 are on remand and 390 are serving terms of imprisonment. Prisoners are accommodated in rooms with an average capacity of three beds, the largest containing ten beds. The prison premises also contain a Czech Prison Service hospital, serving the inmates, with a capacity of 111, as well as the Pankrác Memorial, [4] containing an exhibition on the Prison Service. The number of prison staff is 568 (2006).