About this site
Häme Castle was converted into a prison in 1837 according to C.L. Engel's plans. Prison operations soon expanded beyond the castle walls as well. The county prison area comprised the area east of the castle, bounded by a prison wall and a wooden fence. There were two actual prison buildings: the so-called reformatory from 1844 and the country's first cell prison from 1871. The reformatory building, designed by architect A.F. Grandstedt, is a distinguished example of early institutional building in the country. Similar reformatories were intended to be built around the country, but the Häme Castle institution remained the only one of its kind. The cell building, executed according to the plans of architect L.I. Lindqvist, was based on the so-called Philadelphia, i.e. solitary confinement system, which represented the most advanced prison administration technology of its time. The cell prison was the first of its kind in the country and as a building type is associated with the great prison reform that took hold in Finland in the 1860s. In addition, the area contains a workshop building. The prison area is bounded to the west and south by a brick wall with a total length of approximately 200 metres. Prison operations ceased in 1993 when the Häme County Prison moved to new premises.
Official description (Museovirasto) — machine-translated from Finnish
- Municipality
- Hämeenlinna