The Helsinki County Prison ("Helsingin lääninvankila" in Finnish) in the Helsinki city quarters of

Katajanokka Katajanokka ( sv, Skatudden) is a neighbourhood of Helsinki, Finland, with around 4000 inhabitants in 2005. The district is located adjacent to the immediate downtown area, though in the first major town plan for Helsinki from the mid-18th cent ...

was a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

that operated from 1837 to 2002. It was established in 1837 by

Tsar Nikolai I Nicholas I , group=pron ( – ) was List of Russian rulers, Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He was the third son of Paul I of Russia, Paul I and younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I ...

by the side of the Helsinki Crown Prison, which had operated from 1749. When completed, the prison had 12 cells, two rooms for guards and a worship room which is still extant and has been used for church weddings. The prison area was surrounded by a high red brick wall. The prison was extended in 1888 with the construction of a cell block in the form of a cross, in the classical Philadelphia model; the old part of the prison was converted to an administrative building. The prison continued functioning after Finnish independence. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the prison was directly hit by an air strike on 6 February 1944. One guard was killed, a fire started and five prisoners used the opportunity to escape. At the end of the war, some well known convicts from the

War-responsibility trials in Finland The war-responsibility trials in Finland ( fi, Sotasyyllisyysoikeudenkäynti, sv, Krigsansvarighetsprocessen) were trials of the Finnish wartime leaders held responsible for "definitely influencing Finland in getting into a war with the Soviet ...

were kept in the prison, including President

Risto Ryti Risto Heikki Ryti (; 3 February 1889 – 25 October 1956) served as the fifth president of Finland from 1940 to 1944. Ryti started his career as a politician in the field of economics and as a political background figure during the interwar perio ...

, Prime Minister

Väinö Tanner Väinö Alfred Tanner (; 12 March 1881 – 19 April 1966; surname until 1895 ''Thomasson'') was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Finland, and a pioneer and leader of the cooperative movement in Finland. He was Prime Minister ...

,. The

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n-born writer

Hella Wuolijoki Hella Wuolijoki (née Ella Marie Murrik; 22 July 1886 – 2 February 1954), also known by the pen name Juhani Tervapää, was an Estonian-born Finnish writer known for her ''Niskavuori'' series.Wuolijoki, Hella. Eesti Entsüklopeedia 10. Estonian ...

. was there for high treason during World War II. Another inmate of note was Martta Koskinen, a seamstress and communist spy convicted of high treason who was executed by a firing squad on September 29, 1943. She was the last woman executed in Finland. During its last years, Helsinki County Prison functioned as a remand prison, where arrested suspects were kept while awaiting trial. To reflect this, in 2001 the prison was renamed Helsinki Remand Prison. Some of the prisoners were also criminals that had failed to pay fines to which they had been sentenced. In 2002, prison operations ceased completely with the completion of the new Vantaa prison. The building was renovated within the constraints of being a protected landmark and was re-opened in 2007 as a hotel.

References

{{Authority control Hotels in Helsinki Prisons in Finland Katajanokka