Legendary 'Kresty' Prison in Saint Petersburg to be Auctioned

The property complex of the former 'Kresty' prison in Saint Petersburg will be auctioned off by the end of the year. This was reported to RBC by Vitaly Mutko, the CEO of ‘Dom.RF’.

“Everything is basically ready for sale now; we aim to do it by the end of the year. It’s a complex object. There is a boiler house, two dormitories there,” he stated. The initial price for the auctioned property could be around 1 billion rubles (approximately 11 million USD), although the exact amount will only be known after the completion of the valuation at the time of the auction announcement, Mutko explained.

The 'Kresty' prison is officially referred to as Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region’s Federal Penitentiary Service No. 1 detention center, but in recent years it has not been used for its intended purposes. In 2017, a new building for prisoners was completed in Kolpino—the 'Kresty-2' complex—which became the largest pre-trial detention facility in Europe.

The ‘Kresty’ prison complex was built in the late 19th century, designed by architect Antoni Tomishko. Over the years, notable figures such as Joseph Brodsky, Leon Trotsky, Lev Gumilev, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Nikolai Zabolotsky, and others have been held there. The complex consists of two cross-shaped five-story buildings, an administrative building with a church, and other auxiliary structures including a hospital, kitchen, staff areas, boiler house, and more.