Jilava

Jilava is a village near Bucharest. The king Carol 1st of Romania built here a fort, in order to assure the defensive system of his capital. Later, this fort has become prison and its sad fame is linked to the beginning of communist reign in Romania. After the WW II, Romania was occupied by the Red Army which enthroned a communist govern formed mostly by Komintern's agents. The communist governs practiced a reign of terror. A lot of terrible political prisons occured in many places (the most cruel of these were the prisons of Pitesti, Aiud, Gherla and Jilava). Up to 500.000 Romanians were imprisoned (often for ridiculous reasons) during the communist regime. A lot of them died in prison.