What is the present function of the site?

The complex functions as an active pretrial detention facility.

Where in Moscow is the complex located?

The site stands in the Tverskoy District near Butyrskaya zastava.

What role did the facility play under Imperial Russia?

The institution served as the central transit prison of Imperial Russia.

Which prominent writers were detained here?

Detained writers included Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Yevgenia Ginzburg.

Who designed the earlier fortress structure on this land?

Architect Matvei Kazakov designed a fortress-like prison on the grounds during the reign of Catherine the Great.

Moscow · Russia

Butyrka prison: what's nearby, how to get there and when to go · 2026

Residents in Tverskoy District walk past the fortress walls on daily grocery runs, sharing their block with an active detention facility.

Butyrka prison · CC BY-SA 4.0

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About the place

Butyrka operates as a central pretrial detention complex within central Moscow.

The masonry complex stands near Butyrskaya zastava in Tverskoy District on ground originally developed by architect Matvei Kazakov under Catherine the Great. Imperial authorities operated the site as the main transit jail for convicts sent eastward. The towers held Polish January Uprising insurgents, Narodnaya Volya radicals, and Morozov Strike organizers under an administration that answered inmate protests with violence.

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Prominent inmates included poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolay Bauman, and security official Felix Dzerzhinsky before Moscow workers liberated the wards during the February Revolution. Soviet authorities continued using the cells for political prisoners, holding writers Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Yevgenia Ginzburg during mass repressions. The facility continues operating as a secure pretrial detention institution.

Associations

Pretrial detentionThe complex still functions as an active remand jail for criminal suspects.
Matvei KazakovThe architect designed the original fortress-like prison under Catherine the Great.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynThe dissident author was interned in the wards before publication of his novels.
Brutal detention regimePrison administrators systematically used violence against protesting inmates.
February RevolutionMoscow factory workers raided the cells and freed all political detainees.

Facts

The prison complex stands in Tverskoy District and operates as an active pretrial detention facility.
Architect Matvei Kazakov designed the earlier fortress structure on the site during the reign of Catherine the Great.
Workers from Moscow liberated all political detainees held in the prison during the February Revolution.
The facility interned prominent writers including Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Yevgenia Ginzburg during Soviet rule.

Updated September 8, 2026Source: Wikipedia

Butyrka prison: what's nearby, how to get there and when to go · 2026

What is around3

Butyrka operates as a central pretrial detention complex within central Moscow.

Getting there and staying

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