Museum of the Prison in Sremska Mitrovica | Museums of Serbia

The Prison Museum represents a unique exhibition space in Serbia, established in 2019, and is located within the premises of the "Srem" Hotel, next to the Penal-Correctional Institution in Sremska Mitrovica.

The exhibition titled "Sealed Fates" testifies to the suffering of Serbs during the First World War, and later of Roma and Jews during the Second World War, and the entire presentation is based on documented data from the infamous prison.

Since the prison is still active, it was decided that the basement of the neighboring building, which also belongs to this institution and houses the "Srem" Hotel, be the place where artifacts will be exhibited and the suffering of those who were imprisoned in Sremska Mitrovica during the wars will be showcased.

The institution was founded in 1895, and one of the most interesting exhibits is a safe from that period whose key has long been lost, and no one has succeeded in opening it to this day.

The diary of Dr. Milan Kostic, who was the warden of the prison in the first two decades of the 20th century, provides the best testimony about everything that happened within the walls of the infamous prison. At that time, the capacity was for 1,000 people, and several thousand prisoners were brought in daily, causing many to go without meals. According to his records, the highest number of deaths was due to hunger and disease, and men were taken by trains to labor camps in Austria-Hungary during the First World War.

The management members of the Penal-Correctional Institution Sremska Mitrovica worked on gathering documentation, with the aim of educating citizens about what was not taught in schools.

The exhibition shows how judgments were conducted throughout history, as well as the subsequent methods of execution. Biographies of the executioners who worked here are presented, along with their personal belongings that made them recognizable, with their white gloves being particularly striking.

Original Austrian gallows used in the territory of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia are also exhibited, and the practice of throwing prisoners into lime pits is depicted, which represents one of the exhibits.

However, the last wishes of those who were sentenced to death were also recorded. It mostly amounted to a last meal or a meeting with a loved one, and there were also poems for the end.

Many learned individuals and dissidents of their time were imprisoned in the Mitrovica penitentiary, and many famous literary works were created here. Between the two wars, the majority of prisoners were communists, and the movement grew stronger here. Moša Pijade translated foreign works and recorded them on toilet paper during his time in prison.

The Prison Museum is open every day from 9 am to 2 pm, and the maximum number of people allowed to visit at once is eight. The individual ticket price is 300 dinars, and for groups of four to eight visitors, it is 150 dinars per person.