Râmnicu Sărat Prison
Râmnicu Sărat Prison is a former prison in Râmnicu Sărat, Buzău County, Romania. It is listed as a historic monument and sits in the southern part of the city near the railway station.
The prison was built in the late 19th century under the Auburn system. It is described in records from October 1901, when King Carol I visited the inmates and pardoned three of them. The building has a ground floor and an upper floor. It includes 35 small cells (each holding up to four prisoners) and six large rooms with a total capacity of about 130. The cells and the rooms were in separate wings.
From its start until 1938, the prison mainly housed common criminals serving short sentences. In 1907 peasants arrested during a revolt were held there briefly. In 1938 Iron Guard members were kept as political prisoners, including its leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. In late November 1938 Codreanu and other Guard leaders were moved toward Jilava but were strangled on the way. In 1939, thirteen more Guardists jailed at Râmnicu Sărat were killed in reprisal for the assassination of Armand Călinescu.
During World War II the prison functioned as a military prison, holding soldiers for various offenses such as desertion or cowardice. In June 1944 there were 63 military prisoners. After the August 1944 coup, the prison again held common criminals.
Between 1947 and 1963 political prisoners were kept in individual cells, while common criminals occupied the large rooms. The groups were kept completely separate and could not communicate. From 1947 to 1952 the number of prisoners varied between 80 and 200. The first political prisoners included peasants who refused to meet quotas and members of non-communist parties. From 1949 opponents of collectivization and the new regime joined them. In 1948–1949 there was a “re-education” effort with lectures about the government and Marxist books. The prison also served as a transit place, with detainees moved to other prisons or to the Danube–Black Sea Canal.
After the Pitești re-education project, some torturers were brought to Râmnicu Sărat for interrogation. Until 1955 most political prisoners were Iron Guard members, including Nicolae Petrașcu. In 1955 and 1957, leaders of hunger strikes and other opponents were sent to the prison, including Ion Diaconescu and later Corneliu Coposu and others.
Conditions were harsh. Food rations were very low, often described as hunger or extermination level, not more than 500–600 calories per day. A common prisoner’s daily meals might be cornflour gruel, boiled vegetables with small bits of meat or gristle, and a thin soup. Detainees woke at 5 a.m. and lights went out at 10 p.m. They were not allowed to stay in bed, had to sit or stand facing the cell door, and could not approach the window or talk to others. Visits had to be in pairs to prevent discussion. Violations could lead to losing the mattress and cutting rations for days. Serious offenses, such as making noise, were punished with beatings, often by warden Alexandru Vișinescu, who frequently used whipping.
Prisoners could receive weekly medical visits; injections might be given directly through clothing, or pills pushed into the cell. In very serious cases, hospitalization could be denied or granted only when the prisoner was near death. The cold was constant from autumn to spring, and beds were placed near open windows so cold air could blow in. Prisoners sometimes managed to communicate by Morse code during walks.
In late 1958, the elderly Ion Mihalache, ill but resisting mistreatment, faced repeated abuse and died in March 1963. Hunger strikes and other protests continued, including the case of Jenică Arnăutu, who died in November 1959 after a hunger strike and force-feeding.
Deceased prisoners were often buried secretly at night in mass graves near a cemetery. Those not considered “re-educated” could be sent to Rubla for one to five years. In April 1963 the last prisoners were moved elsewhere, the prison was closed, and it was used as a storage facility until the Romanian Revolution.
In 2015 the former warden, Vișinescu, was convicted of crimes against humanity for his treatment of detainees and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The site is part of a restoration project with funding from the European Commission. By 2026 the plan is to turn the building into the Prison of Silence Memorial and Educational Center.
A partial list of inmates is kept, with a symbol indicating those who died there.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:13 (CET).