Palazzo delle Prigioni — Attraction in Venice

The Palazzo delle Prigioni, also known as the New Prisons (Prigioni Nuove), is a terrifying historical site in Venice, Italy. This edifice, located next to the Doge's Palace and connected by the famed Bridge of Sighs, was used as a jail for centuries. Today, it serves as a sad reminder of the city's darker past and is accessible to the public as part of the Doge's Palace museum complex.

The New Prisons were built in 1563 under the leadership of Giovanni Antonio Rusconi and completed in 1614 by Antonio and Tommaso Contin. The goal was to replace the outdated and overcrowded prisons in the Doge's Palace with a more contemporary and secure institution.

The New Prisons, connected to the Doge's Palace by the Bridge of Sighs, served as the concluding part of many Venetian journeys. After being convicted at the Doge's Palace, convicts were carried across this bridge to their cells, with their last view of freedom coming through the bridge's narrow windows.

Throughout the 18th century, the jails were modified to fulfill a variety of functions, including a prison hospital and a safe haven for people who surrendered to authorities. During Austrian domination, key Italian independence leaders, like Niccolò Tommaseo and Daniele Manin, were imprisoned within its walls.

The New Prisons were designed by Antonio da Ponte, the creator of the Rialto Bridge, in the Renaissance style. While the outside is quite modest, the interior is starkly different, with solitary cells, interrogation rooms, and darkly lighted hallways that create a dismal and...

Great little alternative to the Doge's Palace, just on the opposite side of the bridge.

The Prison Palace is where the 'new' prison was built as the Doge's side was not enough. You don't get to go on the Bridge of Sighs with the tour we had.

We opted for a guided tour, booked through Viator called "Lords of the Night Prisons Palace: Cells and torture tools."

It was such a good tour, really nicely run, informative, and ended up just being the two of us, so was like a private tour!

We were told the history of the prison, given a tour of the cells and some great info. The tour was around 45 minutes long, and then we could explore at our leisure, which gave us time to read the information and look at anything not covered in the tour.

It is definitely not for those who don't want to know about some of the more gruesome elements of life in medieval times, i.e. imprisonment cells, tools of interrogation, torture, and sometimes execution.

We bought tickets 24 hours in advance, but there was no queue anyway, it was really empty, definitely somewhere that is missed because everyone goes to the other side of the bridge, where there was a huge queue.

Lots of stairs and some uneven...

From the POV of 3 kids ages 10 and under: It was kind of scary and very creepy. I wanted to leave right away.

From the parents: we did not read up on this before going in and might have skipped it as 2/3 of our children are pretty sensitive and the displays, while interesting, were very macabre and about the dark history of torture and killing. We did a quick tour through and then went for pizza to...