World Prisons
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Portugal

Cadeia do Aljube

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Verified 29 May 2026
Fresh · 0d ago

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit Cadeia do Aljube

Step-by-step guidance using the Portugal system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of Cadeia do Aljube

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • Alfama (34486943222).jpg

    Photo by Sam via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

  • Aljube (6514106885).jpg

    Photo by Bosc d'Anjou from New York, NY, USA via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

  • AljubeSecXX.jpg

    Photo by Arquivo Fotográfico Municipal via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Crucifixo.jpg

    Photo by Avozdasvitimas via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Escavações Aljube.jpg

    Photo by Avozdasvitimas via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Lisboa - SDC10122.jpg

    Photo by PESP/ Wikimedia via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Lisbon (49190259653).jpg

    Photo by Jeremy Thompson from Los Angeles, California via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

  • Lisbon (49419798938).jpg

    Photo by Sergei Gussev via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Background

Cadeia do Aljube is a former prison in Lisbon, Portugal, now serving as a museum. Situated near the Sé Cathedral in the parish of Santa Maria Maior, the prison housed those convicted through the Ecclesiastical Forum until 1820, then women accused of common crimes until the end of the 1920s. From 1928 until its closure in 1965, political prisoners of the Ditadura Nacional and Estado Novo were held there. Famous former inmates include Francisco Miguel Duarte, Telo Mascarenhas and Mário Soares. After this it was converted to hold common criminals and offices of the Ministry of Justice.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

Current population

Occupancy

Year opened

2015

Operational

Facility profile

Operator

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

2015

Region

Security level

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Data completeness

20%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources