Karosta Prison

Karosta Prison lies within Karosta, the former tsarist naval port district on the northern edge of Liepāja, Latvia. Built in the early twentieth century, the prison functioned as a short-term disciplinary detention place for sailors and non-commissioned officers rather than a conventional jail, and over the decades it held offenders under the Russian Empire, the independent Latvian state, Nazi occupation and the Soviet Union. Sailors involved in the 1905 revolution were confined here, and its cells stayed in use for military discipline until the withdrawal of Soviet forces, with graffiti scratched by inmates surviving into the late 1990s.

Given its long history of confinement and hardship, the prison has gathered a reputation for ghostly sounds and presences, which its atmospheric night tours draw upon. Such experiences are subjective and anecdotal, in keeping with the building's grim past, and are presented here as folklore rather than as claims of the supernatural.

The prison's genuine value is as a rare, little-altered military detention site and a window onto the turbulent history of Karosta and Liepāja across successive regimes. Preserved as a museum, it offers an unusually direct encounter with twentieth-century military and political history.

Karosta Prison is open to the public as a museum in Liepāja and can be seen only on guided tours, which run according to seasonal opening hours, with longer daily hours in summer and reduced or booking-only access in winter. Alongside standard tours it offers interactive programmes in which guides play the role of guards, night tours, and the well-known overnight 'behind bars' experiences, most of which are aimed at groups and require prior booking by phone or email.

The more extreme shows and overnight stays involve physically and psychologically demanding role-play and are subject to age limits and a signed agreement. Visitors should book ahead for special programmes and treat the site's real history of imprisonment with appropriate seriousness.