Kresty (Russian: Кресты, literally Crosses) prison, officially 1st Detention Center of Administration of Federal Service of Execution of Punishments in Saint Petersburg (Следственный Изолятор № 1 УФСИН по г. Санкт-Петербургу) is a detention center in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The prison consists of two cross-shaped buildings (hence the name) and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The prison has 960 cells and was originally designed for 1150 detainees.
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Kresty (Russian: Кресты, literally Crosses) prison, officially 1st Detention Center of Administration of Federal Service of Execution of Punishments in Saint Petersburg (Следственный Изолятор № 1 УФСИН по г. Санкт-Петербургу) is a detention center in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The prison consists of two cross-shaped buildings (hence the name) and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The prison has 960 cells and was originally designed for 1150 detainees.
The history of the prison starts in the 1730s. During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, Vinny Gorodok (Wine Town) was a warehouse complex where all the wine for the city of Saint Petersburg was held. After the Emancipation reform of 1861 the need for prison space greatly increased; before the reforms, serfs were incarcerated by their landowners and after the reforms they were put in state prisons. Thus, in 1867 the wine warehouse was transformed into a 700-bed prison separated into female and male areas. The reconstruction of the wine warehouse was...
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