Did you know . . . that there is a prison inside the walls of Lucca? You may have passed it on a morning walk on the wall and never realized what is in back of that tall wall with cameras on top. Casa Circondariale de Lucca is just northeast of Porta San Donato and has quite a history behind it. The building that houses this prison dates back to the year 700. In the 1500s the building housed a convent of cloistered nuns. (Convent of Nuns of the Angels) The building itself is square and inside the cloister there is a garden with plants which constitute the only green space of the institute. It was during the Napoleonic era that it became the seat of a penitentiary when in 1806 Prince Felix I decreed that the Convent be used as a prison. More information can be found here.
Submitted by Christine Stava
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