In this prison are the guests of Karostas Cietums Hotel in Liepaja (Latvia). This building, built in the early 20th century, was indeed a hard labor prison for political prisoners in Tsarist times. In the era of the USSR, war criminals served time there. By the way, the prison was closed quite recently: in 1997.
Since then, the building has not been repaired, so the prison cells have remained almost in their original form.
There is a special attitude towards the guests here: at the entrance, they take away all their belongings, dress the prisoner in a striped uniform and lead him in handcuffs under escort to the room, that is, to the cell. The surroundings are indescribable: you will have to sleep on a bunk with a flashing light under the ceiling, and daylight penetrates here only through a tiny window, taken away by bars. They feed here with gruel and bread and water.
All employees are dressed in the vintage uniforms of security guards and the leather jackets of security officers. And they treat the guests without any respect, as with prisoners – that is, everything here is for real, like in a penitentiary. Everywhere there are portraits of Bolshevik leaders, dishes – Soviet faceted glasses, catering plates, and metal coasters. In general, everything is from that forever bygone era, the atmosphere of which is fully felt by hotel guests, as they say, in their skin.
At night, guests listen to the eerie cries of other prisoners, begging for mercy – it is not known for certain whether their audio device is playing or it is screaming from live actors. In general, you won’t get bored in this hotel – but you won’t fall asleep either.