Pitesti Prison Memorial in Slatina

Powerful place. A huge history lesson is hidden behind these walls, offering an insight into Romanian history and forgotten happenings. The entry is free of charge (although I would highly advise to charge a fee or provide entry based on a donation). At the moment, you only pay if you wish to attend a guided tour, otherwise you can visit based on an audio guide on your phone and in your own pace. Friendly and helpful staff.

Un loc al terorii, dar si al sperantei, unde inveti sa iti privesti propria viata cu alti ochi, si propria tara in alta lumina. Mai putin cunoscut decat memorialul de la Sighet, insa cu un impact poate mai mare, acest memorial al suferintei ar trebui sa fie pe lista “de vizitat” a tuturor romanilor. Felicitari tuturor celor implicati in intretinerea acestei colectii!

Aici descoperi lucruri foarte interesante despre comunism, lucruri pe care nu le găsești în manualele de istorie.

An impressive museum it is. Very informative and is a great place to learn about the history of the country. The staff is nice. Very much appreciate that it is free of charge.*The app is not functioning too well and patches are probably needed😅

Visited with no specific expectations, and was very impressed. The self-guided tour (with app for English speakersruns chronologically through the rooms. The staff were very helpful, and the artwork, information curation, and ambiance were done well. The history/subjects are (obviouslyheavy, and told with respect and reverence. A great example of a simple, small memorial museum done well.

Un obiectiv interesant care prezinta si anumite aspecte ale regimului comunist dar mai ales fosta destinatie a acestei cladiri - aceea de inchisoare politica.Intrarea este gratuita, sunt etape sau pasi de parcurgere a intregului muzeu destul de bine documentate, dar doar in limba romana (pentru lb engleza exista aplicatie care se poate descarca gratuit. In plus, personalul muzeului este foarte amabil si da indicatii generale si de orientare in obiectiv.Se poate face si tur ghidat (in romana sau englezacare costă 30 lei de persoana.Atentie ca este un obiectiv interesant dar dureros, trist si chiar sinistru, infricosator.Mentionez ca eu am ales varianta simpla (fara aplicatie, fara ghidsi a durat aproximativ 90 minute, timo in care am parcurs aproape toate materialele de prezentare disponibile.

Un loc plin de istorie in care informatiile sunt prezentate intr-un mod interesant, prin videouri, fotografii si coloana sonora care sa te introduca in atmosfera de atunci si sa te faca sa intelegi mai bine suferinta prin care au trecut acei oameni.

Not much to see really. Just some empty walls in most of the rooms. The guide was alright. They have a nice little library.

Este cel mai impresionant obiectiv ce ar trebui vazut daca ajungeti in Pitesti. Recomand vizita insotita de un ghid din doua motive: vei patrunde mai mult in aceasta poveste urata ce a fost "fenomenul sau experimentul Pitesti" si vei face un bine sub forma de donatie. Un mare bravo pt ceea ce ati realizat.

This place must be visited; it hides some terrible facts that happened during the Pitesti experiment.Thank you, Catalina for the tour 👏

Ok

I stumbled on this place by accident but its definitely worth a recommendation. The story of this former prison is mind-boggling: prisoners "re-educating" other prisoners through violence. Its sickening, but told in a gripping way. The signs are all in Romanian but theres an app (called MIP, it has a red icon in the appstorewich tells the story in English and works great.And a special shout out to the lady who works there, shes very nice and helpful and speaks perfect English!

Heavy atmosphere, gnarly stories...18+ recommended

One of the best museum related experiences in Romania I have ever had. Congratulations to all the people involved in the endeavor.One tip would be getting a guided tour, it offers so much more than just perusing the building on your own. And as an added bonus, all profits they make are donations.

Ive been trying to get there for a while. After reading and studying this for a while the moment has come.Even the prison was bigger in the past, now only a part of it can be visited, the rest being owned by private companies which remodelled the rooms accordingly. The association that takes care of the museum is self sustained one so the contribution is recommended. I chose guided tours as I wanted to offer support as well. The rooms are not having so many description but 1 big poster with images and details in each room is enough to make you understand what happened there.Only the idea of Pitești being one of the most horrible prisons of the Romanian communist regime makes you feel threatened. Having goosebumps especially while visiting the actual small church inside, where a lot of theological students, law and medicine students, intelectual ones, were tortured, beaten and mentally abused for many times.Huge round of appreciations for the guide, very nice performance. Only suggestion would be to make it more personally, many times the speech looked only like a school lesson.Overall nice experience which I personally loved!

O experiență interesantă, claustrofobică. Ador că au creat traseu cronologic pentru a înțelege mai bine întâmplările. Recunosc că aș vrea să văd mai multe obiecte în încăperi. Intrarea este gratuită, turul ghidat costă 40 lei / persoană, există și o aplicație pentru a asculta textul scris pe panouri.

Very friendly and kind guide. A place to visit without children, very interesting, unfortunately sad. You will learn a lot about the history and the "Pitesti phenomen".You can enter without the entrance fee but it is worth the donation at the exit!I highly recommend to visit it !

Go visit

Wow..

It was amaizing: we took a guided tour where the guide (Oanaexplained so well the context, the history and the drama of the place. You can see her passion and professionalism.She adapted her speach for the kids (avoinding the too dark details).Taking a guided tour is a must, without it you can not understand the political game and the details behind the Pitesti experiment, as well as the stories of those that survieved.A great place to learn about the past.

Aici au fost adevărații eroi și martiri, merită cu adevărat vizitat!Personalul este foarte bine pregătit și amabil.Se poate vizita cu ghid (plătitsau se poate descărca gratuit o aplicație de pe Magazin Play.În incintă există și o librărie iar la ieșire sunt 3 bucăți din zidul Berlinului ce au fost donate muzeului.Vă mulțumim pentru că păstrați vie această dureroasă istorie a țării noastre că un memoriu pentru cei ce au suferit.Dumnezeu să vă binecuvânteze!

The guides are very nice and friendly, you can even buy books (available also in englishand the whole tour takes like an hour or maybe more. You can see the administrative part of the prison and also the one where the people were locked. The place is full of history and sad memories (but after you visit this museum you will appreciate more what you have now, because we live better times). There is also an audible app that tells the story of each room (available in english and romanian).

=== Cutremurator !!! ===Este ceva extraordinar sa poti sa vizitezi un asa loc unde s-au intamplat lucruri greu de imaginat pentru mintea umana !!!Fiind prezent acolo in aceasta fosta inchisoare , te vor ,,misca multe lucruri descoperite/citite .De asemenea d-soara ghid foarte amabila din toate punctele de vedere .Au si parcare -- gratuita -- , pentru cei care au nevoie de asa ceva .Abia astept sa il vizitez iarasi .

Grim reminder

Interesting history experience

I had read many books about and referencing this place before getting here. Only a part of the old building can be visited, the rest is a private company. The museum also works as a private company, which is admirable, but makes it hard to sustain themselves. There are boards in each room and the track takes you through the horrors of those times, with context and follow up. As a society, it is essential to have such memorials to help us learn, understand and remember so that we can consciously decide how we want our life to be.

A place full of history !!!

E un loc cu o atmosfera, putin spus, incarcata. Urmele comunismului isi mai intind ghearele pentru o ultima data, pentru a vedea toate ororile sale in speranta de a nu le a mai repeta nimeni si de a vedea prin ce au trecut niste eroi nu foarte indepartati. Inchisoarea de la subsol e de departe cea mai sumbra. Doamnele de acolo sunt foarte dragute si amabile, raspund cu drag oricaror intrebari, se poate vizita cu sau fara ghid. Se poate opta pentru vizitarea gratuita sau cea cu ghid, cu 40 de lei de persoana.

Great guided tour! Recommended if you want to discover the history!

We had a great visit! It is definitely worth to visit, especially with the guided tour as strolling around won’t help much as you need a knowledgable person to take you through all the stories that have happened in there. Oana is (with no exaggerationthe best guide I ever met, and she combined a serious topic with some “fun” parts so it does not get depressing. She managed to keep our attention the whole 2 hours of the tour. She read so many books about the Pitesti experiment matter, hence she was able to answer each question I had, no matter the complexity. Also, we were a mix of Polish and Romanian group, reason why she did her first English tour with us and it was amazing. If this was her first one, I cannot imagine how good the next ones will be!Thanks Oana for all the great time and thanks for spending such a long time with us, even after the closing time!!

Wonderful memorial. It is nice presented and the stories are indeed sensitive and unbelievable. Our guide, Oana, was able to present all these stories in an interactive way. I already knew a lot about the Pitesti experiment, but she told us facts that you hardly find them on the internet. One thing that I would like to see next time I’m coming to visit the museum is additional objects from that area. There were some donated materials such as bunker beds, prisoners’ clothes, and soon I hope you will receive more in order to make the experience even more authentic!Thank you for everything Oana and we will definitely come back!

Worth to see, well organised webapage, english speaking guids. Not easy but have to know part of Romanian history.

Really good and informative tour about what remains a little known part of Romanias history.

I had a very nice experience at the Pitesti Prison Memorial today. The visit is free and they offer a free app that you can download to walk you through the exhibits (Romanian and English). It was an educational visit which helps one learn about the life of political prisoners in the secret prisons in communist times. Recommended.And also a kind thanks to the lovely docent who allowed me to visit even as they were about to close for the 2pm lunch break and made me feel most welcome and without hurry. Kudos!

Not sure if it was stopped or is now happening in bigger scale. Unfortunately I cant answer to your question so I edit my review. The building itself is a perfect memorial for this episode of history. the guide was very informative and gave good insight in the daily routine of the prisoners. One thing that made me sad is, that you have to make appointments for the english tour, because nowadays it is no problem to give a tour via app in different languages. I had no problem to understand the guide because I had proper hardware to translate the written texts and I know a little bit of romanish language. The other thing is, that the information I got there is very disturbing, but sometimes it looks like some politicians play the same games nowadays via media with all of us in real life. All in all it was a very good tour, but as I wrote before, it could be more efficient for foreigners to listen to in the native language to get full experience. Thanks for the tour

A beautiful yet scary reminder of what happened there in the past.

Full of history! Took a free guided tour and was blown away by the terror to which political prisoners were submitted to. Definitely a place to visit to understand the true and regretful part of the Romanian Communism!

Best guide ever

It is a place where you cand learn about romanian history, about communism, about the horrors that happened in the prison.

Very interesting informations!

Poor Experience and poor quality I was disappointed whit my visit

There are cultures that never heal historic wounds and there are those that forget. My generation chose the latter, my parents the first. The horror stories embellished in the ex prison are only compensated by the courageous and peaceful means by which they were fought. Trampling ones fate seems to have elevated its victims to uphold it more and we owe those brave souls more than remembrance. In a short span of time the tour will crush your spirit and restore your hope. It remains one of the darkest documented period of the communist era and a priority into understanding the devastating effects of Eastern European communism.

So impressive! If you ever visit Pitesti city, you should also visit Pitesti Prison. There is some history that we should never forget.

This former prison is an important part of recent Romanian history. A very knowledgeable guide will tell you about the atrocities and tortures that students endured for simply opposing the communist ideology. The rooms are pretty much preserved as they were in the 50s so you will get a real feel of the grusome atmosphere back then. I totally recommend a visit to the Pitești Memorial.

Impressive

This is truly an authentic house of horror but you d just have to use your imagination to really grasp that. There are plenty of descriptions to help you understand the significance of this place. It s a Romanian death camp at par (if at may use comparisonswith famed Nazi camps... Yet gloomier, darker. The caretakers of this place are civilians and they are the ones who kept it from going into oblivion (thru destruction, reconversion etc).

Impressive experience! The atrocities happened in the former political prison of Pitesti between 1949-1951 are hard to be described. Nowadays, a part of the complex is transformed into a memorial that seeks to tell the story of the young students that were tortured to confess, to abandon the values that defined them and, in the last stage, to torture their friends. Undoubtedly, an important page of Romania`s recent past.

Visiting the Pitesti Prison Memorial is a full ride into Romania’s 20th century history, starting from the aftermath of the two World Wars, going into how communism took over Romania and how it affected it’s society, going on explaining what does the infamous Pitesti Experiment meant and what were its consequences and ending with the fall of the totalitarian regime; The memorial is the perfect place to learn and understand one of the most brutal form of physical and psychological torture that the communist regime inflicted to those who opposed it. While it’s not suitable for children under the age of 12, my belief as a History major is that people need to find out about the events that took place at the Pitesti Prison between 1949 and 1951, as it is an important part of contemporary history that most avoid talking about.

It was such a great experience visiting the museum and the new exhibition. Its quite thrilling realizing that right in the middle of the city there is a place with such a dark history.

If Pitesti is on your way (for example going to Poenari, Timisoara, East Rumania, etcdont doubt it. Take a while and stop here in the Prisión Memorial.Although the venues are not so "real"" as other prisons (because they have been already partially transformed for other purposesthe guided tour is really worthy. In our case, Maria made a very complete explanation, in very good English (she also know a bit of Spanishof what happened there that made us feel what happened there indeed.Its a small hidden place, but with a great value to understand history of the Communist Romania.They need to improve the visit, may be more furniture, clothing, mannequins, models, videos,... of that period. But they are in the good way and the guided tour was great.