Department of Cultural Affairs

Remains of Taipei Prison Wall

In response to continuous anti-Japanese uprisings throughout Taiwan in the early period of Japanese rule (1895-1945), the Japanese colonial government built large-scale prisons in Taipei and Tainan to hold political prisoners. The Taipei Prison serves as a tangible witness to modern Taiwanese prison history.
The Taipei Prison was based on a radial floor plan, a standard prison design of the nineteenth century. Although today only the north face and portions of the south face survive, one may still perceive the heavy atmosphere of the punishments meted out here. The prison walls were made with stones from the Old Taipei City Wall, built by the Qing Dynasty at the end of the nineteenth century. The stones were carved completely by hand from the Anshan and Qili’an quarries in the Dazhi and Neihu areas of Taipei, and still remind us of the arduous efforts made to build the city of Taipei.