Justice from the middle ages to the 19th Century 
The 19th Century:
the development of the prison system
Notorious criminals of the 20th Century |
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Home >History >the first premises: the Carceri Nuove |
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The first premises: the Carceri Nuove
The museum’s first home was in the seventeenth-century Carceri Nuove Prison in Via Giulia, built by Pope Innocent X Pamphili in 1647 to a design by Antonio Del Grande, and completed by Pope Alexander VII Chigi to house the prisoners who were to be transferred from the inhumane prisons of Corte Savalla, which was razed to the ground, and Tordinona.
Restoration work on the building was completed in a year by gangs of inmates from various prisons.
The museum occupied the ground floor of the building (entrance and six rooms) and was divided up into different sections according to theme: the crime section (with exhibits related to different types of crimes from forgery to murder); actions taken by the state against criminals (where investigative techniques were illustrated); the serving of sentences and security measures (items from the prisons that were described rather dramatically as “evil stratagems”, namely ruses invented by the prisoners to hide weapons, to escape, to inflict bodily harm on themselves), and lastly a historical section containing decrees and edicts, and instruments of torture and execution.
In 1968 the Criminal Museum was dismantled so that the Carceri Nuove could be used for other purposes, and the exhibits were kept in the storeroom of the Regina Coeli Prison until the museum was relocated.
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