Ancient batcave prison, Sauvo, Finland

Visited 7.3.2013 by jonahi. If the last prison was old, it wasn't anything compared to this one. I found this place during my workday when we were visiting the nearby lean-to with a reed thatched roof, and the villagers told me that there was this old prison nearby. I've got to say that I have a fantastic job, not all of us have opportunities to explore abandoned places during work time! I think those people were more excited about the cute little bat hibernating on the back wall, though. The prison itself looks just like a cellar, and if I didn't know it has been a prison, I would have guessed that it was just an ordinary storage. Nevertheless, I wouldn't want to end up locked in there. It was a dark, distressing and claustrophobic place without any kind of a window. The only light came in from the slits of the door frames. I wonder what have been the reasons why people were put in there in the days long gone. The village wasn't big and it was far away from anything, so it hasn't been a very populous place and not many murderers or other bad people could have lived there. But at least the prisoners may have had a bat friend with them.

Prison fortress (Part 5), Tallinn, Estonia

These are the last photos from this prison.

I'm wondering: How has it felt to be only a number in a soviet prison cell's door, a cell with a little light and no heating? What is the price to pay for making a mistake, a bad act towards someone else? Did the prisoners feel that it was right for them to be locked in these cells? Were there also innocent people, for instance because of their political opinions? The answer must have been yes. But somehow the interior of the cells were beautiful, maybe because they were so old and the paint was felling off from the walls exposing the colorful paints underneath.

Prison fortress (Part 4), Tallinn, Estonia

"Welcome to soviet socialist paradise."

For me it was somehow beautiful and sad at the same time to see that someone had attached horseshoe on the door of the cell. It reminded me of that fact that there really was ordinary people living in those damp, dreary, stony cells where was so little light coming in. Some of the cells were even windowless. Walking in that space made soviet jailers short, harsh commands to echo in my head. Heavy, black iron locks and bars drained all the hope from those cells. Crying seagulls in the sky made the atmosphere even more distressing and despairing.