Prisoners in the past, travelers today.
While some prisons have been converted into museums, such as Alcatraz in San Francisco or Kilmainham in Dublin, others have been taken over by hotels.
The cells, once cramped and precarious places to live, become comfortable rooms for tourists looking for unusual places steeped in history.
They have significant advantages, first and foremost the location.
Most of these establishments have in fact been built in the heart of cities.
In France, the first accommodation of its kind, La Prison, is expected in June 2023 in Béziers.
Until then, focus on ten European hotels where you can lock up... while keeping your key!
Wilmina Hotel (Berlin, Germany)
Opened in early 2022, Hotel Wilmina occupies a former women's prison in the Charlottenburg district.
Wilmina
Located in Berlin's Charlottenburg district, the Wilmina, which will open in early 2022, occupies a former courthouse and a former women's prison dating from 1896. When it closed in 1985, the building was converted into an archive center before be transformed into a boutique hotel with 44 rooms from 11 to 75 m².
Its strengths?
Its garden, almost secret in Charlottenburg, its Lovis restaurant, without forgetting the cultural part, Amtsalon, which offers meetings, exchanges and exhibitions.
Wilmina Hotel, Wilmina Kantstrasse 79, 10627 Berlin, Germany.
Such.
: +49 30 201 80 50. From €184 per night in a double room, breakfast included.
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Our ten favorite hotels
Bodmin Jail Hotel (Bodmin, England)
Closed in 1927, Bodmin Jail has been home to the Bodmin Jail Hotel since 2021. Bodmin Jail Hotel
Built in 1779 during the reign of George III, Bodmin prison in Cornwall held prisoners until its closure in 1927. It was one of the first in the UK to have single cells, converted into 70 comfortable rooms with the opening of the Bodmin Jail Hotel in the spring of 2021. To discover the history of the place and more generally that of Cornwall, nothing better than to follow the immersive museum trail laid out within the granite building (Bodmin Jail Attraction).
Bodmin Jail Hotel, Scarlett's Well Road, Bodmin PL31 2PL, UK.
Such.
: +44 (0) 1208 822 822. From €230 per night in a double room, breakfast included.
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Hotel Kakola (Turku, Finland)
A family room in the Kakola Hotel in Turku, Finland.
Kakola Hotel
Turku, Finland's third largest city, hosted the country's largest prison for a century and a half.
Built on Kakola Hill in 1853, it was reserved for the most hardened criminals in the country.
At its height in the 1930s, it housed over 1,300 prisoners.
Closed in 2007 to be relocated 10 km further, the penitentiary built in granite has been transformed into a residential area with its apartments, café, restaurant and brasserie.
The Kakola Hotel, a four-star hotel with 148 rooms, opened in 2020. A brand new funicular takes us there in less than a minute from the banks of the Aura River.
Hotel Kakola, Kakolankatu 14, 20100 Turku, Finland.
Such.
: +358 2 515 0555. From €170 per double room, breakfast included.
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Hotel Katajanokka (Helsinki, Finland)
A courtyard view junior suite in the Katajanokka Hotel in Helsinki, Finland.
Katajanokka
Hotel Katajanokka is located in the historic premises of the former Helsinki County Jail.
Built between 1837 and 1888, the different parts of the building housed the prison, but also a temporary detention center.
Before the complex closed its doors in 2002. After major renovations, the boutique hotel of the same name was inaugurated in 2007. Wishing to transmit the past of the place, the hotel brings some major important dates to its visitors, from the explosion of an aerial bomb in 1944 - which allowed five prisoners to escape - to the 1970s, which saw the chains disappear and other disciplinary sanctions removed.
Hotel Katajanokka, Merikasarminkatu 1a, 00160 Helsinki, Finland.
Tel.: +358 9 686450. From €129 per night in a double room, breakfast at an additional €17.
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Langholmen Hotel (Stockholm, Sweden)
The Langholmen Hotel in Stockholm.
Långholmen Hotell & Restaurang AB
The small island of Långholmen in Stockholm has hosted a penal institution for almost 250 years.
Closed in 1975, the prison was rehabilitated a few years ago to be transformed into a real hotel.
The strong point of the place is undoubtedly the green spaces present on the island.
An oasis of greenery for a bucolic atmosphere that we owe to the prisoners, who planted no less than 3,000 trees during their years of imprisonment.
A story told in the Långholmen Prison Museum, located in the hotel and accessible free of charge for guests.
Langholmen Hotel, Långholmsmuren 20, 117 33 Stockholm, Sweden.
Such.
: +46 8 720 85 00. From 85 euros per night in a double room, breakfast included.
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Four Seasons Hotel at Sultanahmet
(Istanbul, Turkey)
The former prison of Sultanahmet, a stone's throw from the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.
Four Seasons
Built by the Ottomans in 1918 in a Turkish neoclassical style, Sultanahmet Prison was partially used as the setting for the film
Midnight Express
.
Since 1996, the ocher walls of the building have housed the luxury hotel Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet, located a few steps from the Bosphorus, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.
The five-star hotel with 65 rooms and suites reopened in December 2021 after a year of closure for renovations.
Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul At Sultanahmet, Tevkifhane Sokak no.
1, 34122 Sultanahmet-Eminönü, Istanbul, Turkey.
Such.
:
+90 (212) 402 30 00. From €635 per night in a double room, breakfast at an additional €35.
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Het Arresthuis (Roermond, The Netherlands)
Hotel Het Arresthuis was once a prison, but also a courthouse and a military hospital.
Van Der Valk - Het Arresthuis
Episcopal palace from the 17th to the end of the 18th century, the Het Arresthuis in Roermond (south-east of the Netherlands) had several lives.
Military hospital, courthouse, it was finally transformed into a house of arrest, then into a state prison in 1863. A penal establishment which notably housed, from 2002 to 2007, smugglers and drug traffickers, also body packers”.
Built from 2009 on the former site of the detention house, the luxury hotel Het Arresthuis was officially inaugurated in 2011. Far from the living conditions of the time, people come here today to relax in a chic and cozy atmosphere.
And so as not to forget the history of the place, a guided tour is also possible before leaving.
Het Arresthuis Hotel, Pollartstraat 7, 6041 GC Roermond, The Netherlands.
Tel.: +31 475 870 870. From 159 euros per night in a double room, breakfast included.
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Alibi Hostel (Leeuwarden, Netherlands)
The second and top floor of Block H has been home to the Alibi Hostel since 2013. Jean-Marc De Jaeger / Le Figaro
It all started with a bet between four friends.
Noting in the early 2010s that Leeuwarden, the main city of the Dutch province of Friesland, did not have a youth hostel, they had the idea of setting one up in the city's former prison.
The second and last floor of Block H has been home to the Alibi Hostel since 2013, where there are both shared and private rooms.
The original size of the cells having been preserved, the toilets are fitted out on the landing and only a few rooms have a private bathroom.
A bar and many lounge areas are set up in the building, which houses designer boutiques on the ground floor.
Main advantage of the hostel: its location in the city center.
Alibi Hostel, Blokhuisplein 40, 8911 LJ Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
Such.
: +31 612 077 449. From €40 per night in a double room, breakfast at an additional €8.50.
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Malmaison (Oxford, England)
The Malmaison Oxford Hotel is housed in the medieval castle of Oxford.
Bad house
The Malmaison hotel group has taken up the challenge of installing one of its 16 hotels in an unusual location: the former HM Oxford prison.
Located in the medieval castle of the university town, the establishment is in block “Aile A”, built in 1850. The prison closed its doors in 1996 and all its prisoners were transferred to prisons located elsewhere. in England.
The building was then renovated in the early 2000s and the Malmaison Oxford hotel was inaugurated in 2004. There are 95 rooms and suites, fitted out respectively in the former prisoners' cells and the governors' residences.
The building retains clearly visible memories of its former function: the thick walls and brick vaults, the barred windows, the heavy doors...
Malmaison Oxford, Oxford Castle, 3 New Road, Oxford, OX1 1AY, United Kingdom.
Tel.: +44 1865 689944. From 180 euros per night in a double room in the reformatory, adjacent to the main building;
for a room fitted out in an old cell, count at least €230 (breakfast at an additional cost of €17).
Read alsoWhat to see and do in Oxford?
Unmissable visits for a day
SleepIn Fængslet (Horsens, Denmark)
Travelers will probably not come here for the chic of the establishment: the cells remain narrow and without any real decoration... FÆNGSLET
It was in 2006 that the last prisoner left the old penitentiary in Horsens, Denmark.
Only six years later, in 2012, was unveiled the project "FÆNGSLET" ("Prison", in French).
More than just a hotel, the former prison now hosts many other places of interest: the prison museum, the city's tourist information center, a shared workspace as well as professional events and concerts. .
Travelers will probably not come here for the chic of the establishment - the cells remain narrow and without any real decoration - but rather for the atmosphere and the abundant cultural life that surrounds it!
SleepIn Fængslet, Fussingsvej 8, 8700 Horsens, Denmark.
Tel.: +45 88 77 04 40. From 84 euros per night in a double room;
toilets on the landing, no breakfast offered.