Casa de Detenção, Cultural center in Recife, Brazil.
Casa de Detenção is a white neoclassical building with red clay tile roofs and a central gray dome on a drum with an arched window. It was built in the shape of a cross, with cell wings arranged so they could be watched from a central room. Since 1976 it has housed the Casa da Cultura, a craft market.
Construction began in 1850 under engineer José Mamede Alves Ferreira, creating the first radial panoptic prison in South America. Its design influenced penal architecture across the region and represented a shift toward modern prison planning methods.
The building now contains artisan workshops and cultural venues set within the former prison cells. Visitors encounter local craftspeople working with traditional techniques, transforming the old institutional spaces into places of creative expression.
The building offers multiple entrances and walkways through different floors of shops and exhibition spaces. Plan enough time to explore the artisan shops and observe the architectural layout without feeling rushed.
The panoptic layout put the cells in cross-shaped wings watched from a central room, not a tower; the building has no watchtower. During the military dictatorship the former prison became a site of torture and killings, and Amaro Luiz de Carvalho is named among its victims.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,803 contributors worldwide.
