Maritime and Prison Museum of Ushuaia
Four museums inside Ushuaia's former prison, covering seafaring, Antarctica and penal history.
Work on the prison began in 1902, when a penal settlement was moved to Ushuaia to secure Argentina's hold on the far south. Five main pavilions radiate from a central vestibule, containing about 380 cells of roughly four square metres behind stone walls some sixty centimetres thick; more than five hundred inmates were held here. Among them were the anarchist Simón Radowitzky and Cayetano Santos Godino. A prisoners' railway ran twenty-five kilometres west from 1913. The prison closed in March 1947.
A civil association reached agreement with the navy in 1994 to turn the buildings over to public use, and the complex was declared a national historic monument in 1997. It now holds four museums under one roof: the maritime museum, covering navigation, the Yagán people and the pioneer settlers; the prison museum, where one wing is left unrestored; an Antarctic museum with expedition ship models and natural history; and a gallery of marine art. A full-size replica of the lighthouse at the end of the world stands inside.
Highlights
- Five radiating pavilions of the former southernmost prison
- One wing left unrestored to show the cells as they were
- Antarctic section with expedition ship models and fossils
- Full-scale replica of the lighthouse at the end of the world
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