Presidio Modelo
A panopticon "model prison" built in 1931 that held Fidel Castro and thousands of political prisoners before closing in 1967.
No public photograph yet
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Share a photoHistory & haunting lore
Commissioned by dictator Gerardo Machado and modeled on the Joliet, Illinois penitentiary, the prison's circular cellblocks were built to hold up to 5,000 inmates under constant surveillance. Fidel and Raúl Castro were imprisoned here from 1953 to 1955 after the Moncada Barracks attack, and after 1959 the site held political dissidents amid severe overcrowding and hunger strikes.
Closed in 1967 and left to decay, the empty circular blocks now stand skeletal and silent, and some visitors describe an unsettling stillness while walking through them, though the site is presented primarily as a museum of Cuban political history rather than a paranormal attraction.
Current site status
The former hospital building operates as a small museum; the derelict circular cellblocks can be explored but have no lighting or restoration, so caution is advised.