The prison building was most likely built around 1887 by Hacı Hasan\nPaşa (Di̇ken, 2010, p. 252). In 1882, plans were submitted to the\nMinistry of Interior for building this prison due to the insufficient\nsafety and adequacy of the old prison (Haspolat, 2013, p. 224). Some\nscholars believe it to have been built in 1789-1790 supposedly according\nto an inscription on the building, but this inscription cannot possibly\nbe true, given that the plans were submitted in 1882, and given that the\nbuilding is certainly not present in Laurens’s 1847 drawing of the\ncitadel, as well as that Nutting in 1854 describes the prison as being\nin the first courtyard of the citadel, further to the south (Kakdaş\nAteş, 2018, page 62; Laurens, 1847; Nutting and Nutting, 1912,\np. 59).

As of 1899, the prison held close to a thousand prisoners (Hartunian,\n1968, p. 30). The cells appear to have contained scores of prisoners in\nthem, with Hartunian reporting his cell holding seventy men:

\n
The particular place where my friends were contained and I was taken\nwas a long and narrow cell, with only one door and two windows,\ncontaining about seventy prisoners, each of whom only had enough space\nto mark his grave upon—hardly enough to stretch out and sleep untouched\nby others. The cell was always clouded with cigarette and coal smoke.\n It was filthy. Lice had freely built their nests on the prisoners and\nin the bedding. Millions of bedbugs swarmed everywhere. Riots,\ncursings, beatings, licentious speech, obscene Turkish songs, homosexual\npractices—these were the common happenings of the day. (Hartunian, 1968,\np. 30)
\n

Hartunian describes in more detail:

\n
Often wild fights and prison riots would take place. Fists clenched\nand objects flew. Heads and bodies were torn and bloodied. At such\ntimes, the safest place was the toilet—if it were possible to get there\nfirst, since many ran for it at the earliest sign of outbreak.
\n
To protect ourselves from the bites of the attacking bedbugs, densely\nomnipresent, we sewed large muslin bags. At night we took off all our\nclothes, got into these bags, and, tying the mouth from the inside,\ntried to sleep. To bear the suffocating, putrid air of the bags, was\neasier than to be mercilessly eaten by the bedbugs. (Hartunian, 1968,\np. 31)
\n

During the Genocide, it was used to house and brutally torture\nArmenians (Մկունդ, 1950).

Ateş describes the architecture and layout:

\n
The prison building was built of basalt stone, has a rectangular plan\nwith an east-west orientation and an inner courtyard type. The south\nfacade is designed as ground floor and upper floor, while the other\nfacades are designed as ground floor. The entrance door is provided\nthrough the arched door located on the south façade. There is an iwan on\nthe north facade of the courtyard. The iwan has a square plan and opens\nto a courtyard with spaces around it. There is an iwan on the north\nfaçade of the courtyard. This iwan structure has two round arches. The\nspaces around the courtyard have eight round arched windows facing the\ncourtyard. The interiors of the spaces are divided into two parts by\narches. The rooms on the ground floor have small windows opening\noutwards. On the south façade, there are six round arched window\nopenings facing the courtyard and the outside. There is a reinforced\nconcrete staircase in the iwan at the entrance of the ground floor. This\nstaircase provides access to the upper floor. (Kakdaş Ateş, 2018, page\n63)
\n

\n",[342],"Description",[344],"The prison building was most likely built around 1887 by Hacı Hasan Paşa. As of 1899, the prison held close to a thousand prisoners. It was known to have bad conditions and many fights. During 1915, it was used to house and brutally torture Armenian notables.",[346],"Prison"]

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