Construction of the New Prison:

  The New Prison (also known by the names Palazzo delle Prigioni or Prigione Nuove) was built to house prisoners in Venice, which allowed for the prison portion of the Doge's palace to be reduced as prisoners were transferred to the New Prison instead. The work's construction is ascribed to 5 main individuals. Giovanni Antonio Rusconi was the first architect on the project. The second architect to work on it was Antonio da Ponte. During his time working with the construction of the New Prison, he consulted with Zaccaria Briani, who was sentenced to a life in prison but worked on the project in exchange for 3 years commuted from his sentence, to improve aspects of the prison such as lighting and ventilation. The New Prison was finished by brothers Antonio and Tommaso Contin. The picture is by Abxbay (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. It is free to copy and redistribute.

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

circa. 1560 to circa. 1614