Fort 13 Jilava

Fort 13 Jilava is a historic monument situated on the territory of the village of Jilava, commune of Jilava.

Fort 13 Jilava lies in the south of Ilfov County, being built exactly according to the plans of General Henri Alexis Brialmont, as part of the Fortress of Bucharest, the defensive belt, with forts and batteries, that rings Bucharest. Its redoubt has the shape of the ace of spades, of unique architectural value. It was used as a political prison, first after the revolt of 1907 and then after the Second World War, when in 1956 it was handed over to the Ministry of the Interior. It became a sad and cruel part of the Romanian gulag. The rooms of the barracks were used as collective or maximum-security cells.

On the night of 26/27 November 1940, the Legionary Police killed, in the cells of the Jilava military prison, 64 political prisoners (see the Jilava Massacre).

Very many of the historical, political and cultural personalities of the interwar period (Marshal Antonescu, Corneliu Coposu, Mihai Antonescu, Monsignor Vladimir Ghika, Nicolae Steinhardt or Radu Lecca) passed through here and some even met their end on the execution field of Valea Piersicilor (Valea Plângerii), next to the fort. The last prisoners to be held here were those of the Revolution of 1989.

At present, some of the former cells are arranged for commemorative museum purposes.

Machine-translated from “Fortul 13 Jilava” on the Romanian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort 13 Jilava ranks #6,778 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #70 of the 121 mapped in Romania. 9 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Bucharest, 9 km away. See how Romania compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in Romanian) ↗