*pr-trip with Visit Tallinn, Visit Estonia, Eckerö Line, Viking Line and Tallink | Silja
Patarei Prison in Tallinn is a decommissioned old prison and is nowadays a public attraction. Less than a year back I went to see it with my camera, and as a result I made the video attached.
Patarei Prison was located by the sea and it was made of light-colored brick chips and the paint on the inside walls of the prison building had partially deteriorated. Images had been drawn and painted on the inside walls of the prison, which, however, spoke of anxiety rather than trying to make the viewer feel better or to enliven the atmosphere of the prison. An exception to this was the framed portrait drawings hung in a cramped corner, and the portraits were said to be drawn by an ex-prisoner. Patarei offered also other exhibitions related to history.
The large windows of the prison, which opened towards the open sea, brought light to the hollows of the prison building. The windows of the cells, on the other hand, were protected by steel bars.
Many of the rooms and cells in Patarei Prison seemed to be in their original appearance, offering the viewer a fairly authentic prison experience. The visitor was especially horrified when he looked inside the dim dungeon from the small peephole of a thick steel door or went to the bathroom, where the post of the toilet had been driven by five adjacent openings carved in stone.
It is very difficult to imagine anyone wanting to end up in a prison like this as a prisoner. This is certainly what the artist must have also thought, when carving impressive fine stone portraits of people escaping from the windows on the outer walls of the Patarei prison.
Watch my video of visiting Patarei Prison here –
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