Râmnicu Sărat Prison is a former prison located in

Râmnicu Sărat Râmnicu Sărat (also spelled ''Rîmnicu Sărat'', , german: Rümnick or ''Rebnick''; tr, Remnik) is a city in Buzău County, Romania, in the historical region of Muntenia. It was first attested in a document of 1439, and raised to the rank of ' ...

Buzău County Buzău County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Buzău. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 432,054 and the population density was 70.7/km2. * Romanians – 97% * Roma ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. The building is listed as a

historic monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

by Romania's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs.

Before World War II

The prison was built at the end of the 19th century, and first attested in a document of October 1901. From its establishment until 1938, it housed common criminals with sentences of up to two years. After the onset of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of th ...

's royal dictatorship in 1938, the prison began to be used for political prisoners, namely the leadership of the

Iron Guard The Iron Guard ( ro, Garda de Fier) was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael () or the Legionnaire Movement (). It was strongly ...

, including

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; born Corneliu Codreanu, according to his birth certificate; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938) was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or ''The Legion ...

During the communist period

From 1955 to 1963, a significant number of prominent political prisoners were held there by the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

. Alexandru Vișinescu was the commander of the prison from 1956 to 1963. In 2015 he was convicted of crimes against humanity for his treatment of detainees, and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. Unlike the much larger prisons at

Gherla Gherla (; hu, Szamosújvár; german: Neuschloss) is a municipality in Cluj County, Romania (in the historical region of Transylvania). It is located from Cluj-Napoca on the river Someșul Mic, and has a population of 20,203. Three villages are a ...

Aiud Aiud (; la, Brucla, hu, Nagyenyed, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Straßburg am Mieresch) is a city located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The city's population is 22,876. It has the status of municipality and is the 2nd-largest c ...

, and

Jilava Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Muntenia, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava. The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin ( Bulgarian жилав ''žilav'' (tough), which passed into Romanian as '' ...

, the Râmnicu Sărat penitentiary was rather small, with a maximum capacity of 300 inmates, provided there were 4 of them per cell.

Notable inmates

This is a partial list of notable inmates of Sărat Prison; the symbol † indicates those who died there.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramnicu Sarat prison Socialist Republic of Romania Buildings and structures in Buzău County Defunct prisons in Romania Historic monuments in Buzău County 1901 establishments in Romania 1963 disestablishments in Romania Râmnicu Sărat Political repression in Romania