Historic Sinop Prison

Sinop's historic prison sits inside the old castle walls on a promontory with the sea on three sides. It was long nicknamed Anatolia's Alcatraz, and many well-known writers, artists and dissidents served time here, inspiring poems and songs. The prison closed in the late 1990s and opened as a museum in 1999.

The fortress that holds it goes back to the Hellenistic period, according to archaeological evidence. Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans each maintained and strengthened it. From Seljuk times the inner castle served for a long period as a shipyard, and from 1560 its towers were used as dungeons, a function that continued in one form or another until the modern prison closed.

Visiting today means walking through thick, high walls, cell blocks and yards with the sea never far away. It is as much a story about the history of Sinop's castle as about imprisonment, and the setting makes it one of the town's most atmospheric stops.