In Tallinn, capital of Estonia, lies the Patarei Sea Fortress prison. I tried to look up a Wikipedia or even Wikitravel page on the Patarei Prison, but can't find one except this one in Estonian on the Kalaranna Fort.
There is an official website on the Patarei project, and from there I learn they have closed the prison for visitors. The future of the place is still 'to be decided', but as far as I can tell it will not stay open as an urbex location, but instead will be developed into something ranging from a museum to houses or offices.
The websites shares a very short timeline of the fortress:
Patarei was built by the order of Russian Emperor Nicholas I as a fortress, with the official name of Defence Barracks. The fortification complex was completed in 1840, but due to the changed warfare strategy it was never used for its intended purpose.
Until the collapse of the Russian tsar power, Patarei was used as barracks. From 1920 to 2002 there was a prison in Patarei during various regimes.
Since 13 May 1997 the main part of the complex has been a cultural monument of the Republic of Estonia.
Today Patarei is managed by Riigi Kinnisvara AS and the fortress complex houses the Prison Museum. It is possible to visit Patarei both independently and on a guided tour.
My visit to Patarei Prison
I went there in the summer of 2014. I had to pay something like 3 euros to get in, which means this prison visit was not one in the category 'breaking and entering', but also meant there was some realisation the place had to be preserved.
The Prison has some indoor and outdoor places that felt very much untouched except of course by daringly creative artists who had tried to get some colour into the place.
I've shot pictures of the building outside, the barracks inside, some detailed shots of left-behind shoes, a Russian newspaper, paintings of naked women on the walls, the medical room of the prison and typewriters.
Then, outside, there is an amazing amount of overgrown paths and cells and gorgeous rusty steel doors.
My entry for the Abandoned Shit Weekly Contest
This week's theme in @customanture's Abandoned Shit Weekly is 'Corridors'. @customnature likes to see pictures and be left behind with the feeling 'Whoa, cool Abandoned Shit, I want to explore this place!' - so for this week I decided to share exactly that: just 2 pictures of an outside corridor, taken from almost the same spot looking in different directions. And yes, except for these two photos I'll leave you all hanging - What's behind those doors? I'll share that in a later post. But it's kind of amazing, especially of you love nature and art, I can tell you that ;-)
[Corridor part 1, short end, some steel doors with impressive looking locks, and an open ceiling (to keep the air fresh?)]
[Corridor part 2, now we can see the corridor is kind of long, the guards must have walked quite some steps every day. I love how nature made this picture look kind of friendly, but imagine this corridor without the green plants, not a place you would want to be all day, would you?]
I hope you got curious to see the rest of the pictures of Patarei Prison! If you're a lover of 'Abandoned Shit' too then please follow @customnature and/or join this week's contest. There's a new theme every week! Check the #aswcontest tag to see more Abandoned Shit.
MY OTHER POSTS ON ABANDONED SHIT
- A ghost city in Belgium with the name Doel
- The mystery of the abandoned wheelchair
- Abandoned Shit Weekly: Graveyards
All photography on steemit.com/@soyrosa is created and edited by me, Rosanne Dubbeld, 2005-2018. Contact me if you want to discuss licensing or collaborations on creative projects :-)