Caseros Prison, Former detention center in Parque Patricios, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Caseros Prison was a detention facility in Parque Patricios with a distinctive H-shaped design containing roughly fifteen hundred cells. These rooms were small and dark, offering no access to natural light from outside.
Construction began in 1960 under President Arturo Frondizi and was completed in 1979 under the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla. The prison thus operated through a turbulent political period that shaped an entire era of Argentine history.
Artist Seth Wulsin transformed the abandoned structure into an art installation in 2008 by painting faces across the window grids during demolition. This creative gesture turned the site into a place where art addressed the building's troubled past.
The site is now abandoned and not open for visits, so viewing it from outside is the only option. Its location in Parque Patricios is reachable by public transport, though the neighborhood is less central and requires some orientation.
The extreme lack of light in the cells caused inmates to develop unexpected physical changes including green-tinted skin and dental issues. These visible effects of confinement reveal how deeply the building's structure shaped daily existence within it.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
