Museum of the Qasr Prison

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
Qasr prison was originally built in 1790 as <a href="/facts/Qajar_Palace/KrRempn0">Qajar Palace</a> with extensive gardens of which nothing but the names remain, during the reign of <a href="/facts/Fath-Ali_Shah_Qajar/fw2jNgu5">Fath-Ali Shah Qajar</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a> In 1929 it was repurposed as a prison, the first modern detention center in the country,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a> in which prisoners had legal rights.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> <a href="/facts/Nikolai_Markov_(architect)/0bWHDA5m">Nikolai Markov</a>, a Russian architect who settled in Iran after the <a href="/facts/Russian_Revolution/kk1z6pnH">Russian Revolution</a>, did the reconstruction, combining urban industrial design with traditional Iranian features such as <a href="/facts/Adobe_bricks/WVTq2bae">adobe bricks</a>, which became known as Markovian bricks.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a> It had 192 rooms for 700 prisoners, of which about 100 cells were solitary.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a> Here <a href="/facts/Ahmad_Ahmadi/7TSP0XaL">Ahmad Ahmadi</a>, known to prisoners simply as "Dr Ahmadi" administered lethal <a href="/facts/Air_embolism/DC00yS4z">air injections</a> to several of <a href="/facts/Reza_Shah/3c5dNTrb">Reza Shah</a>'s many opponents, such as the poet <a href="/facts/Mohammad_Farrokhi_Yazdi/yp5UVICB">Mohammad Farrokhi Yazdi</a>. After Reza Shah was overthrown by the <a href="/facts/Anglo-Soviet_invasion_of_Iran/Nd77bH5C">Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran</a> in 1941, Ahmadi himself was tried for the murders and executed in 1943.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a>
For <a href="/facts/Mohammad_Reza_Shah/r2bcadLc">Mohammad Reza Shah</a>, it served as a torture and execution chamber for extreme political crimes which by the late 1970s was extensively reformed by the Red Cross into what was described a "hotel" by the staff. In its cells <a href="/facts/Ayatollah_Khomeini/y1kgDUoG">Ayatollah Khomeini</a>, <a href="/facts/Ali_Khamenei/NcL1YHPS">Ali Khamenei</a>, <a href="/facts/Morteza_Motahhari/UYmWFNIu">Morteza Motahhari</a> and <a href="/facts/Ayatollah_Taleqani/FNrsQAet">Ayatollah Taleqani</a> were held. On 11 February 1979 1,000 women were released from the prison.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> Following the <a href="/facts/1979_Revolution/frTYhJ0F">1979 Revolution</a>, many civil and military officials of <a href="/facts/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi/r2bcadLc">Mohammad Reza Pahlavi</a> were detained and executed at the prison, including <a href="/facts/Nader_Jahanbani/aFUtz7Sb">Nader Jahanbani</a> and <a href="/facts/Amir_Hossein_Rabi%2527i/GVFMvXn8">Amir Hossein Rabi'i</a>;<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a> Major General <a href="/facts/Manuchechr_Khosrodad/cINSwzfM">Manuchechr Khosrodad</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a> and Prime Minister <a href="/facts/Amir_Abbas_Hoveida/ByUgcvyr">Amir Abbas Hoveida</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a> were imprisoned at Qasr before being executed on the roof of <a href="/facts/Refah_School/57rEtb9c">Refah School</a>, where Khomeini had set up his headquarters.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a>
In subsequent decades the prison fell into disuse till in 2005 it was announced by the <a href="/facts/ICHTO/p63MJQ01">ICHTO</a> that the compound would become a museum.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a> In 2008 it was donated to the municipal government. Reopened in 2012, the former prison buildings and offices were turned into museum buildings, surrounded by a <a href="/facts/Public_park/eXoHebeq">public park</a> which carries the same name.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15">15</a> It hosts many cultural events such as the <a href="/facts/Nowrooz_festival/5Gounfnm">Nowrooz festival</a>. According to the <a href="/facts/Iranian_Students_News_Agency/Taw0NRRp">Iranian Students News Agency</a> Qasr was named the most creative museum in the country in 2013.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16">16</a>

<h2 id="gallery">Gallery</h2>

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
<li>Iran portal</li></ul>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/National_Garden%2c_Tehran/YkhYs442">National Garden, Tehran</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/National_Museum_of_Iran/U8U8mmC6">National Museum of Iran</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Ferdows_Garden/atr47b5h">Ferdows Garden</a></li></ul>

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Qasr Prison.

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">"Iranian Political Prisoner Cells to Turn into a Museum". Peyvand News. Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency. 1 March 2005. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html" target="_blank">http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Marketa Hulpachova; Sourena Parham (11 February 2016). "From palace to prison: Iran's Qasr – in pictures". The Guardian / The Tehran Bureau. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">"Iranian Political Prisoner Cells to Turn into a Museum". Peyvand News. Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency. 1 March 2005. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html" target="_blank">http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Marketa Hulpachova; Sourena Parham (11 February 2016). "From palace to prison: Iran's Qasr – in pictures". The Guardian / The Tehran Bureau. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">"Iranian Political Prisoner Cells to Turn into a Museum". Peyvand News. Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency. 1 March 2005. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html" target="_blank">http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Marketa Hulpachova; Sourena Parham (11 February 2016). "From palace to prison: Iran's Qasr – in pictures". The Guardian / The Tehran Bureau. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Marketa Hulpachova; Sourena Parham (11 February 2016). "From palace to prison: Iran's Qasr – in pictures". The Guardian / The Tehran Bureau. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">"Shah's air force chief executed". The Telegraph-Herald. Tehran. UPI. 9 April 1979. Retrieved 31 July 2013. <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vfZBAAAAIBAJ&pg=6770,1232709&dq=amir+hossein+rabii&hl=en" target="_blank">https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vfZBAAAAIBAJ&pg=6770,1232709&dq=amir+hossein+rabii&hl=en</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">"Manuchehr Khosrodad: One Person's Story". Human Rights & Democracy for Iran. Abdorrahman Boroumand Center. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/-3306/manuchehr-khosrodad" target="_blank">https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/-3306/manuchehr-khosrodad</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Milani, Abbas (5 June 2000). "The fall guy: Biography of ill-fated Prime Minister Hoveyda, excerpt from Chapter One of The Persian Sphinx: Amir-Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution". The Iranian. Abadan Publishing Co. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="/wiki/Abbas_Milani" target="_blank">/wiki/Abbas_Milani</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Milani, Abbas (2008). "Amir-Abbas Hoveyda". Eminent Persians, Volume 1. Syracuse University Press. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-81560-907-0. <a href="978-0-81560-907-0" target="_blank">978-0-81560-907-0</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">Marketa Hulpachova; Sourena Parham (11 February 2016). "From palace to prison: Iran's Qasr – in pictures". The Guardian / The Tehran Bureau. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">"Iranian Political Prisoner Cells to Turn into a Museum". Peyvand News. Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency. 1 March 2005. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html" target="_blank">http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">Marketa Hulpachova; Sourena Parham (11 February 2016). "From palace to prison: Iran's Qasr – in pictures". The Guardian / The Tehran Bureau. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:15">"Ghasr Garden & Museum (Tehran) - All You Need to Know Before You Go (with Photos)". TripAdvisor. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/Attraction_Review-g293999-d4553615-Reviews-Ghasr_Garden_Museum-Tehran_Tehran_Province.html" target="_blank">https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/Attraction_Review-g293999-d4553615-Reviews-Ghasr_Garden_Museum-Tehran_Tehran_Province.html</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:16">"Qasr Garden Museum / Experimental Branch of Architecture". ArchDaily. 5 June 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2017. <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/381379/qasr-garden-museum-arash-mozafari" target="_blank">https://www.archdaily.com/381379/qasr-garden-museum-arash-mozafari</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Museum of the Qasr Prison open-in-new

Museum of the Qasr Prison