I was delighted to unexpectedly find this still standing and being able to find a way in.
The main 5 storey cell block was eerily beatiful and dramatic.
The main 5 storey cell block was eerily beatiful and dramatic.
The prison was built on the grounds of the former Notre-Dame de Loos Abbey, founded in 1146 and secularized after the French Revolution in 1789. It was already in use as a prison in 1817, but the penitentiary buildings in use during the Second World War were built in 1906.
Lille was occupied by Nazi troops on 31 May 1940, and became part of the German military zone in Northern France under control of the German command in Brussels. Like all prisons in occupied France, Loos-lès-Lille Prison came under German command, and by May 1941 a section of the prison for political prisoners was run entirely by German staff; the Quartier allemand de la prison de Loos. This was one of the main prisons in Northern France for political prisoners of the German occupying forces.
Loos-lès-Lille Prison continued to operate as a prison after the war. A memorial to the prisoners who were deported to Germany was consecrated at the prison in 2006. In 2014, a Lille court awarded damages of 34,000 euros to the family of a prisoner who had died in the prison in 2007 from medical neglect. The prison, badly deteriorated, was closed in 2011 and its main buildings razed in 2016.
Lille was occupied by Nazi troops on 31 May 1940, and became part of the German military zone in Northern France under control of the German command in Brussels. Like all prisons in occupied France, Loos-lès-Lille Prison came under German command, and by May 1941 a section of the prison for political prisoners was run entirely by German staff; the Quartier allemand de la prison de Loos. This was one of the main prisons in Northern France for political prisoners of the German occupying forces.
Loos-lès-Lille Prison continued to operate as a prison after the war. A memorial to the prisoners who were deported to Germany was consecrated at the prison in 2006. In 2014, a Lille court awarded damages of 34,000 euros to the family of a prisoner who had died in the prison in 2007 from medical neglect. The prison, badly deteriorated, was closed in 2011 and its main buildings razed in 2016.
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