Tours of Jelgava Prison with Former Prison Employees

Tours of Jelgava Prison with Former Prison Employees

The Jelgava Regional Tourism Centre (JRTC) is launching a long-awaited series of public tours of Jelgava Prison in September. Visitors will be offered three different ways to explore the prison, catering to the interests of as wide an audience as possible.

The tour “Jelgava Prison: Then and Now”, accompanied by a guide and an experienced former prison employee, is planned as a regular tour that visitors can attend every Wednesday at 12:00. During the two-hour walk, participants enter the grounds of Jelgava Prison to learn about one of Latvia’s oldest places of detention and its more than century-long history. During the tours, visitors can explore the prison grounds, see its historic buildings, and learn about the various stages of the prison’s development, as well as the events and people whose lives have been closely connected with this place. The tour will be interesting for anyone interested in Latvian history, architecture, and lesser-known places in Jelgava. 

The tour programme also includes “Jelgava Prison in Focus”, designed specifically for photographers and content creators, in response to their continued interest in visiting Jelgava Prison. This tour takes place with a guide and a former prison employee, while giving participants more time to devote to photography and filming. JRTC would like to emphasise that the tour is not intended for creating artistic photographs or individual photo sessions, but rather for preparing publicity and promotional photographic material.

The tour programme has also been expanded with a visit to Jelgava Prison accompanied by two former prison employees. During the two-hour walk, participants explore the area behind the walls of Jelgava Prison together with companions who once worked there and share their personal memories and everyday stories about life behind these walls. Visitors can walk around the prison grounds and see its historic buildings while listening not so much to a historical account as to vivid, first-hand observations and experience-based stories that reveal everyday life at this place from a different perspective. The walk will be interesting for anyone who wants to see Jelgava Prison not only as a witness to history, but also through the eyes of someone who spent part of their working life there. Importantly, this is not a guided tour, but an exploration accompanied by former employees who worked at Jelgava Prison, meaning that the stories will be based on personal experiences and everyday life.

The tour starts and participants meet the guide at 3 Palīdzības Street, by the entrance to the administrative building of Jelgava Prison. The admission fee is €8 for adults, while students, schoolchildren and pensioners pay €5. Available dates and times for visiting Jelgava Prison, as well as tickets, can be found at “Biļešu Paradīze” ticket outlets and on the website: https://www.bilesuparadize.lv/lv/location/2430

Upon arrival, participants must present a valid tour ticket. To ensure safe movement around the prison grounds, the number of participants in each tour group is limited to 15 people.

Please note that the tour is not suitable for preschool-aged children, and children must remain under the supervision and responsibility of their parents during the tour. It should also be emphasised that the prison grounds are authentic and have not been adapted for people with disabilities, including mobility, visual or hearing impairments. Individual photo sessions and artistic photography are not permitted during the tour. The rules for visiting the prison are available here: https://media.bilesuparadize.lv/public/uploads/EKSKURSIJU_NOTEIKUMI.pdf

JRTC also invites visitors to explore Jelgava using audio guides and listen to 24 stories about the city’s most notable attractions. The audio guide is available here. More information about attractions and events in Jelgava and Jelgava Municipality is available at www.visit.jelgava.lv or on the social media account @visitjelgava.

During the event, photographs and video recordings will be made for publicity and public information purposes, documenting and presenting the work process, the use of funds, and ensuring continuity of information for future generations, as well as contributing to cultural development and the preservation of cultural heritage. Additional information about the processing of personal data by the Jelgava City Municipality, including a list of data subject rights, is available on the website: https://www.jelgava.lv/pasvaldiba-par-pasvaldibu-datu-aizsardziba/.

Information prepared by

Jelgava City Municipality Institution

“Jelgava Regional Tourism Centre”