Description of the attraction
Pawiak is the name of a prison located in Warsaw. Pawiak prison was founded in 1835. The prison was closed in 1965, after which there is a museum.
The prison was built in 1825-1835 by the famous architect Henryk Marconi shortly after the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland. Initially, the prison was used by the Russian authorities, and criminals were serving their sentences in the prison.
The prison occupied an area of 1.5 hectares and was surrounded by a high wall with guards. The main building housed a four-story men's prison. The building of the women's prison was called "Serbia" and was located in a two-story building of a former military hospital. The interior also contained warehouses, prison workshops, a bathhouse, a laundry room, a kitchen, and a boiler room. After the uprising of 1863, the prison was used to confine insurgents and political prisoners.
During World War II, Pawiak was an important prison center, through which more than 100,000 male and about 20,000 female prisoners passed through. After the formation of the Warsaw ghetto in 1940, the prison entered its territory, after which political prisoners and members of the resistance began to stay here. More than 60 thousand prisoners were sent to concentration camps, and 37 thousand people were killed in the prison itself.
In 1944, during the bombing, the prison was almost completely destroyed, leaving the tree in the prison yard intact, as well as fragments of the walls and gates.
In 1965, on the initiative of former prisoners in Pawiak, a museum was created, which was built on the foundation of underground casemates. Personal belongings of prisoners, fragments of bars and locks, as well as part of documents were recovered from the ruins. Currently, the museum hosts thematic meetings, and famous historians give lectures.
