The Brest Prison (French - bagne de Brest) was a 254m long prison in Brest, France. It was built between 1749 and 1751 by Antoine Choquet de Lindu, dominating the military port it was built to serve. It could house 3000 prisoners (sometimes as much as 10% of the town's population), children as young as 11 as well as older people. It was closed in 1858, and demolished in the late 1940s.
Its construction was launched after Louis XV of France, by an ordinance of 27 September 1748, transferred the (previously independent) galleys to the control of the French Navy, to allow him to provide crews for galleys cheaply. Galley prisoners were previously held on their galleys - now they would be housed in new prisons, such as that at Brest. On two levels divided into 4 large sections, the building could house 400-500 prisoners and was designed to house the police cheaply, prevent prisoners escaping and providing for prisoners' vital needs.
Its siting was controversial. Though many citizens of Brest wanted it to be built within the Arsenal enclosure, no site "below the cliff" provided enough room for such a construction or suitable for its sanitary needs (running water, ventilation, and so on). Finally built at Lannouron, on the left bank of the Penfeld, between the high corderie, barracks and hospital.
Closed in 1858 since its living conditions were adjudged to be too soft after reports from workers there and after baron Portal's report, its prisoners were moved to penitentiary colonies.
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Eugène-François Vidocq, son of an Arras baker, escaped from here as well as from the prison in Toulon and later became chief of police.
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Rochefort, unofficially Rochefort-sur-Mer for disambiguation, is a city and commune in Southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a subprefecture of the Charente-Maritime department, located in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
The penal colony of Cayenne, commonly known as Devil's Island, was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953, in the Salvation Islands of French Guiana.
Inini was an inland territory of French Guiana, administered separately between 6 June 1930 and 19 March 1946, after which all of French Guiana became a department of France. The territory remained governed as a special entity, until 17 March 1969 when it was dissolved into communes, and subject to regular government. Its capital was Saint-Élie. The population of the territory consisted of Amerindians, Maroons, and gold prospectors. The district was named after the river Inini, a major river in the interior of French Guiana which runs east to west, unlike the other major rivers which run south to north.
Jules René Lucien Belbenoît was a French prisoner on Devil's Island who successfully escaped to the United States. He later published the memoirs, Dry Guillotine (1938) and Hell on Trial (1940), about his exploits.
Serkadji Prison, formerly Barberousse Prison, is a high-security prison in Algiers, Algeria; in 1995, about two-thirds of the 1,500 prisoners detained are accused or convicted of terrorism.
Bagnio is a loan word into several languages. In English, French, and so on, it has developed varying meanings: typically a brothel, bath-house, or prison for slaves.
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is one of the three sub-prefectures of French Guiana and the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. It is the second most populous city of French Guiana, with 50,250 inhabitants at the January 2021 census.
Montsinéry-Tonnegrande is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America.
A galley slave was a slave rowing in a galley, either a convicted criminal sentenced to work at the oar, or a kind of human chattel, sometimes a prisoner of war, assigned to the duty of rowing.
The prison of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni was the main penal colony in French Guiana for more than a century. Some of the buildings were restored in the early 1980s.
Landerneau is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.
The Parlement of Rennes or Parlement of Brittany was one of the parlements, a court of justice under the French Ancien Régime, with its seat at Rennes. The last building to house the Parlement still stands and now houses the Rennes Court of Appeal, the natural successor of the Parlement.
The Bagne of Toulon was a notorious bagne, or penal establishment in Toulon, France, made famous as the place of imprisonment of the fictional Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables. It was opened in 1748 and closed in 1873.
The Brest Arsenal is a collection of naval and military buildings located on the banks of the river Penfeld, in Brest, France.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Brest, France.
Slavery in Malta existed and was recognised from classical antiquity until the early modern period, as was the case in many countries around the Mediterranean Sea. The system reached its apex under Hospitaller rule, when it took on unprecedented proportions, largely to provide galley slaves for the galleys of the Order, as well as other Christian countries. Commerce raids, which were the backbone of the Knights' economic military system helped to maintain this system, partly through creating the demand for slaves to maintain the military fleet, but also due to the influx of Muslim prisoners when battles were won. Thus Malta became the hub of slavery in Christian Europe. Slavery was abolished in Malta by Napoléon Bonaparte during his invasion of the Maltese archipelago on 16 June 1798.
Charvein is a village in the Mana commune of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni in French Guiana. Charvein was the location of Camp Charvein, one of the most notorious camps of the Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni. From 1989 until 1992, Charvein was the location of a Surinamese refugee camp.
Prison of the Annamites is a former prison in the commune of Montsinéry-Tonnegrande in French Guiana. The prison was built for Annamite prisoners who had revolted against French rule. The purpose of the prison was to develop the Inini territory. The prison was in operation between 1931 and 1944.
The Arsenal des Galères is a former military arsenal located in Marseille, France. It was built by Colbert in the second half of the 17th century to house and arm King Louis XIV's galleys, but was only fully operational for less than a hundred years, galleys rapidly losing their role in naval warfare to ships.
In French history, bagne is a term used to describe a penal establishment where forced labor was enforced. These establishments were typically in penal colonies or galleys where there were the port bagnes. Not all convicts in the penal system were sentenced to forced labor.
