8 hotels that were previously prisons

For many people, there is hardly a worse idea than having to spend a night behind Swedish curtains - or maybe even longer. But there are actually people who actually pay for it - or at least for something that goes along those lines. Because there are now a few, the times beforewere, and who are now luring guests with the possibility of spending the night in luxury behind bars.

Off to prison – at least the former one. There's definitely something about making friends and family upset when you loudly announce that you've spent the last few nights in a prison (at least a former one).

When it was not yet a hotel but the Charles Street Jail, the Liberty Hotel in Boston had a very prominent inmate - namely the legendary human rights activist Malcolm X. At that time, the individual cells were only eight square meters in size, but now the almost three hundred rooms have 37 up to 74 square meters - a luxury that Malcolm X and his fellow inmates could only dream of at the time, not to mention the equipment. The Clink restaurant integrated into the building is also particularly nice, as you can still sit in the original prison cells - only the food is significantly better than it was during the prison's former days.

The town of Roermond, with a population of 60,000, is located on the German border, about half an hour's drive from Mönchengladbach. There is also the Van der Valk Hotel Het Arresthuis, a former penitentiary and later state prison, which was reopened as a 4-star hotel in 2011. Inside, however, there is not much left to be felt about the fate of the prisoners back then. Only the architecture of the corridors and the bars in front of the windows reveal that the building was a former prison. If you want to find out more about the original purpose of the Van der Valk Hotel Het Arresthuis during your stay, you can book a 30-minute guided tour.

The Four Seasons hotel company has stood for hotels and resorts with pure luxury for almost 65 years - after all, it is the only AAA Five Diamond hotel chain in the world. The Four Seasons Sultanahmet also does thisno exception, even though it was built from a former prison: the Sultan Ahmed Prison. At that time, up to a thousand prisoners were housed there, including women and children who had committed serious crimes. Today there are 65 luxurious rooms and suites, the amenities of which the former inmates could only dream of. Within walking distance of the Four Seasons Sultanahmet are famous attractions such as Hagia Sofia and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. But you don't even have to go outside, because the former prison yard has now been turned into a beautiful garden.

At the time, the inmates of the former prison from which this Malmaison hotel emerged could only dream of four stars. Until 1996 the house was a prison, namely HM Prison Oxford. In 2005 it was reopened as a boutique hotel, which it remains today. The hotel's 95 rooms and suites are all converted prison cells, and you'll feel much more comfortable in them now than you did back then - that's a promise!

Långholmen is both an island and a district in Stockholm, located between Kungsholmen in the north and Södermalm in the south. The Långholmen Central Prison has also stood there since 1880, where the last time a person in Sweden was executed by the state in 1910 - a perfect place for a hotel stay, right? Since the prison was closed forever in 1975, it was one of the largest correctional facilities in Sweden, it has been transformed and currently houses an adult education center, restaurants, a youth hostel and the 3-star Långholmen Hotel. Today the rooms are much more modern than back then, all with a Swedish touch - so you can spend time behind Swedish curtains quite comfortably. And if you want to find out more about the history of the building, you can also visit the integrated prison museum.

The Dutch city of Almelo, which has a population of 75,000, is not on the agenda for many people when they travel; most tourists tend to go to Amsterdam, The Hague or Utrecht. But if someone is drawn to the tranquil Almelo, why not to the city's former prison, which has been extensively renovated and converted into the Hotel Huis Van Bewaring? You can still imagine that the hotel was originally a prison when you see the brick building from the outside, and the stairwell is also reminiscent of prisons that you know from films and series. However, the rooms are so spacious and comfortably furnished that you feel like you are at home - maybe even a little better.

The Hotel Liberty in Offenburg was also once a prison - and was recently even awarded an award by the Michelin Guide. And rightly so, because the Hotel Liberty has really become a great luxury hotel in which you simply feel comfortable. The former correctional facility consists of two brick buildings from the mid-19th century, which are now connected by a glass extension that houses the reception and restaurant. The designers of the hotel also made sure not to completely erase the history of the place, after all, that is what makes the place so special and characterful. Not only the curved, unplastered brick ceilings have been preserved, but also the grilles on the windows. So if you want to spend the night in style in a (former) prison in Germany, you should travel to Offenburg as soon as possible.

The Hotel Barabas in Lucerne is the first prison hotel in Switzerland. Contrary to the cliché that everything in Switzerland is noble and expensive, one has to say that the Hotel Barabas is the one in this list of prison hotels that exudes the least luxury and is most reminiscent of a correctional facility. The rooms are comparatively sparse and minimalistic, many rooms are relatively small at eleven square meters because the original cell size has been retained. Even the “6-bed cell” with bunk beds is just 16 square meters. The most luxurious is the former prison administration office, but you can still spend a pleasant (and comparatively cheap) night there. And for the bookworms among you: you can also book the prison's own library, which has a large collection of crime novels, as a room.