Turi Prison

Originally intended to become the new cloistered convent for the Poor Clare nuns of the Church of Santa Chiara—since the old one was no longer suitable for monastic life—the building project was entrusted to Architect Pesce and planned on land previously occupied by the convent’s kitchen garden. Although the works were initially scheduled to last four years, construction was significantly delayed, and the nuns never had the opportunity to reside there. In 1866, with the structure almost complete, the anti-clerical policies of the Kingdom of Italy led to its confiscation by the state and its conversion first into an institution for people with physical and mental disabilities, and later into a penal facility. Since 1975, it has served as a prison (Casa di Reclusione).

The impressive and monumental complex—described at the time of its construction as a “grand building without equal in the whole of southern Italy”—covers an area of approximately 6,600 square metres. From an architectural standpoint, it displays features of considerable value and is therefore protected under historic and landscape heritage regulations pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 42 of 22 January 2004.

The Prison of Turi, still active today, holds significant national importance also for its penitentiary history. It housed prominent figures of Italian anti-fascism, including the communist Francesco Lo Sardo, the socialist Sandro Pertini—later one of Italy’s most beloved Presidents of the Republic—and the thinker Antonio Gramsci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party.

Gramsci’s prison cell, where he wrote much of his Prison Notebooks (Quaderni dal Carcere) and a large part of his correspondence, is today recognised as a National Monument.

Related article:Turi, the place where Gramsci learned to resist with words