museums in historic prison

originally, ushuaia was at first primarily a huge prison - in a way meaning for buenos aires what sydney initially meant for england, to be a truly remote penal complex. it is shown below.

The prison operated until 1947, when president peron closed it. at a later time it was reshaped to become the significant maritime&prison&art museum; see its design then pictures from there.

as you will notice, all the shown people are actually 'puppets' (except of...) most cruel seems to be the officer in charge in the prison.

there are models of the various prisoners as well, from those of highest status to the very lowest one.

several paintings present how ships crashed. and in the courtyard some of the machines used when building the prison can be inspected.

when building the prison, a lot of wood was needed. this was gathered in western areas of tierra del fuego. to get it to ushuaia, around 1900 even a railway system was created.