Prison castle in Tobolsk and other famous prison castles

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Any prison castle, despite its original decent and beautiful appearance, seems gloomy.

The sad pages of history when he was a prison place an unpleasant shade on his entire appearance.

Gloomy beauties

For example, the famous French Conciergerie castle in Paris. Built as the residence of kings, it turned into a prison castle. And since 1793, it has generally gained a reputation as the most cruel prison in France. His prisoners were Marie Antoinette, Maximilian Robespierre, Emile Zola, Mata Hari. And from whatever angle you look at it, it is difficult to perceive it as the residence of kings, the word "prison" comes to mind. There are dozens of such examples: the famous If Castle, the Tower and Dover - the legendary English prison castles, simultaneously erected by William the Conqueror. The Tower, standing on the banks of the Thames, is the historical center of London. During its history, it has been a fortress and a palace, an arsenal, a mint and an observatory. But in the understanding of most people, this is the darkest prison in London. The list can be replenished with the castle of the Holy Angel in the center of Rome and the Austrian "Bastille", the Mukachevo castle "Palanok", as well as the "prisonerpearl of the East - Tashkent Central. These buildings are indeed beautiful, but their beauty is dark and rarely delightful.

Aristocratic façade

In the phrase "prison castle" the main term is "prison" and then "castle". Most often, these structures were originally assigned a different role, but the castle in Tobolsk was built from the very beginning as a prison.

He was until 1989, in which she was transferred to the subpolar Urals in the urban-type settlement of Kharp. However, for some reason it does not look sad. Maybe it's all about color? The Tobolsk prison castle (photo attached), especially its central facade, if not for the wall, would generally look like a theater. Or the palace of a local nobleman. Yes, and it is located in the city center.

Sophisticated dungeon

But, despite the outward appearance, this is one of the darkest prisons in Russia, and in Siberia - the most cruel. There was a deep conviction among the prisoners that it was better to go to hard labor than to the Tobolsk “Krytka” (covered prison), which was also famous for its variety of special places of punishment. There were "cold", "dark" and "wet" cells, which were available in all prisons in Russia. But they were supplemented by such sophisticated punishment cells as “hot”, “glass”, “humped” and “dark”. In one, one could only sit or lie down because of the low ceiling, in the “glass” one could only stand, the wall in the “hot” one was a prison stove.

This prison castle was also famous for its inquisitorial torture("slingshot" and "chairs", "stocks" and "chains"). Such a measure of punishment was envisaged as chaining a prisoner to a wall for a period of 5 years. The shackles were never removed from some prisoners, which changed the gait of a person and made it recognizable. The fugitive was identified immediately. Here, the prisoners were cut in a special way - they shaved exactly half their heads. This was done so that in the wild one could immediately recognize the escapee from places of detention.

Major transshipment point

Tobolsk central is a dark page in the history of the city, which was a transit point for many convicts. Tobolsk was in dire need of a new, larger prison. And in 1838, in St. Petersburg, a decision was made to build a large prison castle in this city. The project belonged to the provincial architect Weigel. It was decided to complete the construction in 4 years, starting from 1841. Bidding for the construction and production of all works was carried out through the capital's newspapers, the choice of the place and its layout were entrusted to the architect Suvorov. Why was the city center chosen, namely the northwestern edge of Cape Troitsky? Firstly, because the number of political prisoners was steadily increasing, and Tobolsk, in addition to the place of exile, became a major transit point - the flow went right through the city. Secondly, it was here, near the Tobolsk Kremlin, that a suitable platform was formed as a result of dismantling the dilapidated fortress wall in 1782 and the demolition of the crumbling Trinity Church in 1791. Thus, the object being built immediately turned into a prison castle of the Tobolsk Kremlin. And now the main attraction of the city is the wholea complex of buildings located on Cape Troitsky.

Siberian unfinished construction

The deadlines for commissioning the object were delayed, Weigel was transferred to Perm, the architects changed, and the final stage went to the titular adviser and architect Chernenko. Already completed side wings did not suit the acceptance committee with high ceilings - they were remodeled. A lot of outbuildings were erected on the territory of the prison, including a hospital with a pharmacy and a shoe-making workshop.

A little later, in the midst of construction, it was decided to build a church. All this delayed the commissioning of the facility. And on November 25, 1855, the prison castle (Tobolsk) and the church attached to it were consecrated in the name of Alexander Nevsky.

In step with the times

This object cost the treasury 130 thousand silver rubles. The prison was huge - on its territory there were four very large premises for the convicts, following further down the stage. This prison was built in accordance with the requirements of that time for such places - and the hospital delighted the commission and the bakery.

Over time, a church was opened here. But V. G. Korolenko, who was a prisoner here twice, described the horrors of this place of detention in his story “Yashka”. In addition to him, N. Chernyshevsky, F. Dostoevsky, M. Petrashevsky and A. Solzhenitsyn, Fani Kaplan were sitting here.

Deceptive beauty

The entire prison complex consisted of five buildings, which, as noted above, are outwardly nothinglooked like a prison. Both the architecture (the building is made in the style of late classicism), to which the adjective “elegant” is applied in some articles, and the color of the buildings should not have burdened the local residents with the realization that in reality it is a prison castle (Tobolsk). The photo attached below confirms what has been said.

The conditions of the prisoners, as already noted, were the most cruel in Siberia. Riots broke out repeatedly in the prison, the largest of which were in 1907 and 1918.

The Bad Place

Of course, there was a site for the execution of prisoners, during the period of Stalinist repressions it became a place of mass executions and burials. The Tobolsk complex, as psychics say, has accumulated a huge amount of negative energy, because the prisoners of Russia called this prison castle “grave”. Tobolsk is also known for being the administrative center of the province, where Georgy Rasputin was born and lived - a person whose interest does not disappear over the years. The Kremlin of this city, the ensemble of which includes the prison castle, is considered the pearl of Siberia - it is the only stone Kremlin beyond the Urals. He was also the winner of the 7 Wonders of Russia competition.

"Places not so remote" in South Palmyra

Of establishments of this kind, the Odessa Prison Castle deserves unconditional attention. The reason for its construction is the same - at the end of the 19th century, the number of prisoners doubled. The building, built along the Lustdorf road,certainly beautiful with that gloomy beauty that is inherent not in prison buildings, but in castles. The site allocated by the city authorities, headed by the then governor Giorgi Marazli, was located near the Christian cemetery. The construction was carried out according to the project of A. O. Tomishko, who built the famous St. Petersburg prison "Crosses". At its base, the castle was a cross, with a central tower inside. All diverging four-story wings had cellars. Solitary cells were located along the edges of these buildings.

The prison was modern, with a hospital building for a hundred beds, all the necessary services, a forge and so on. All this was built from high quality bricks. In 1895, in Paris, this prison castle and Moscow were recognized as the best in Russia. Leon Trotsky, Georgy Kotovsky and Mishka Yaponchik were sitting here.

Church first, then prison

The Irkutsk prison castle is notable for the fact that at first, along with a stone fence (1800), they began to build a church. It was erected above the central gate and was consecrated by Bishop Veniamin in 1803 in honor of Boris and Gleb. It was erected on public donations. The church had slender outlines and correct proportions; a watchtower was given under the bell tower. The construction of the castle itself began only in 1857. It should be noted that the city mayor I. I. Shats made amendments to the already approved project. It was proposed to add the necessary services - baths, kitchens in the required quantity and a house for the caretaker. Another amendment provided for a more compact development of all buildings, it was adoptedthe decision was to build a second floor above the main building, which made it possible not to build a separate house for the caretaker. And already in 1958, the construction of the main stone building began. And since the old prison was immediately destroyed, the prisoners were temporarily placed in the old cloth factory building and began to be used as labor in the construction of the castle, even with a small wage.

Business approach

The whole world built the prison castle, which made it possible to identify and bring together the best workers. From the prisoners, professional teams of builders and firefighters were later made up. And although all work was completed by the summer of 1960, the facility was not put into operation in November 1961. The prisoners were moved there only in December 1861. Designed by A. I. Losev, this castle has long been considered the most beautiful administrative building in Irkutsk. Construction work was carried out in it almost all the time - either they built a workshop for sewing outerwear, then they rebuilt the hospital building, completed the construction of two 4 and 3-storey buildings for the apartments of the attendants and cantors. Since 2006, a museum has been opened in the isolation ward. The most famous prisoners were F. E. Dzerzhinsky and A. V. Kolchak. The current prison is located on Barrikad Street, at house number 63. You can drive up by tram number 4 and minibus number 4k and 64 (Kazan market stop).

Forgotten by people and God

Danilovsky prison castle is now abandoned and falling apart. Built in the 60s of the 19th century as a local prison, it was used for its intended purpose until 1960. Then inIn the buildings of the castle, the leadership of the Yaroslavl region arranged warehouses for civil defense, which were liquidated in 2000. Now these ruins are a landmark of the city of Danilov.

The prison castle in Cherni, Tula province, was built by the architect A. A. Meingard in 1849-1855. The prison was small, two-story, with a small church. But during the Great Patriotic War, it was completely destroyed, even few photographs survived.

Part of the city's history

Also has its own prison castle in the city of Chembara (since 1948 - the city of Belinsky). It is located in the Penza region. This building has undergone amazing metamorphoses. Built in 1854-1856 on the Market Square, it has survived to this day. Since 1985 and until recently, it housed the House of Children's Art, and earlier - a secondary school. After the revolution, a powerful stone wall was demolished, and the two-story building was given to secondary school No. 1. But in the prison there were casemates and torture chambers.

Recently, the house has been systematically put up for auction, but the public is petitioning the authorities to include the building in the list of cultural heritage sites of the city. But indeed, the building is about 160 years old, the history of the construction of a church with an iconostasis by the merchant of the 2nd guild K. A. Shugaev is interesting. He built it with his own money in memory of his parents.