Former Jelgava prison opens its doors for tours

More than 150 years after it was built, the former Jelgava prison has opened to visitors for guided tours, LSM reported. The tours offer access to rooms that were closed to the public until the prison ended its operations this summer.

Jelgava Prison was built in 1870 and was one of Latvia’s oldest detention facilities. It closed on June 30 after a new prison in Liepāja began receiving inmates.

Latvia’s first president, Jānis Čakste, spent three months in the prison in the summer of 1908. In 1926, Ansis Kaupēns, one of Latvia’s best-known robbers, was also held there.

Guntis Rasa, who worked at Jelgava Prison for 20 years, now leads visitors through his former workplace. The last group of inmates was transferred to Liepāja Prison on June 27, while staff continued working at Jelgava Prison until almost midnight on June 30 to complete the required records, he said.

Rasa shows visitors the cells where inmates lived. Inmates were held in rooms with four beds, two on each side, and windows overlooking the outside world. Residents of a building opposite the prison were sometimes inconvenienced when inmates climbed up to look through the windows, Rasa said.

The Jelgava municipality took over the closed prison complex from the Ministry of Justice. It now organises tours called Jelgava Prison Then and Now.

Groups may include no more than 15 people, and tickets cost eight euros.

About 700 inmates were held at the prison in 2005. In recent years, the number had been approximately 320.