Kapodistrias Orphanage (The Prisons)
A large Kapodistrian building from 1828-1829, known on Aegina as The Prisons. It began as an orphanage for the children of the War of Independence and later served as a school, library, museum and jail.
The Kapodistrias Orphanage, known on Aegina as Oi Filakes (“The Prisons”), was built between 1828 and 1829 on the orders of Ioannis Kapodistrias, to take in the children orphaned by the Greek War of Independence.
Later the building housed schools, vocational workshops, the National Library, the National Archaeological Museum, the National Printing House and a military academy. From the late nineteenth century it was used as a prison, and during the Colonels’ dictatorship it also held political prisoners.
Today it is one of the most important Kapodistrian buildings on Aegina, and you normally see it from the outside. Its value is above all historical: it is a reminder of the first years of the modern Greek state, when Aegina was briefly the provisional capital.
Address
Perivola Bay, Aegina town