The Lamia Prison was built in 1915 on privately owned land leased by the state. It included a men’s and a women’s section. The men’s section was in the block of the current Kapodistriou, Alamanas, Diakou and Papakyriazi streets, while the women’s section was located further south, surrounded by Xanthou, Papakyriazi, Tsakalov and Alamanas streets. The men’s section had a capacity of 100 people. There is little information about the pre-war period, certainly the prisons did not meet operating standards. In the early 1930s, the local press noted that “the building that currently houses prisoners is a stain on our culture.” Between 1933 and 1935, various proposals to relocate the prison to the Castle of Lamia or the abandoned “Elassonion” Hospital were not implemented. [1]
During the Occupation, despite damage from German bombing, the prison continued to operate. On 30 September 1941, there were 121 prisoners, all of whom were serving sentences for criminal offences.[2] Until 1943, the men’s prison building was also used by the Italian occupation forces, who held military control of the whole of mainland Greece. In a report by the Ministry of Justice to the Italian forces in March 1943, it is noted that the building “is good in terms of capacity. Ventilation is adequate. Capacity for 100 prisoners. 161 are already being held. According to information from the Ministry, the prisoners are living tolerably well, in relation to the conditions in other prisons. The Ministry has allocated 500,000 drachmas for health and cleaning expenses, independently of the regular appropriations. As for food, the GRC regularly sends food supplies […] The prison administration was instructed to report to us why the prisoners’ food is inadequate.[3] The prisons held Italian resistance fighters and civilians who were murdered in reprisal operations, the most famous case being the execution of 14 hostages on 10 December 1942, in retaliation for the blowing up of the Gorgopotamos bridge.[4]
From October 1943, the prisons were used by German forces to imprison resistance fighters and civilians who had been active in the anti-occupation movement. From mid-November 1943, Lamia had a branch of the SiPo/SD and, together with Athens and Larissa, was the headquarters of the Commander of the Order Police (BdO).[5] Prisoners were executed in at least two cases: on 2 April 1944 in Lamia (50 people) and on 25 April 1944 at the “Karakolithos” site in Boeotia (37 out of a total of 134 or 136 executed). On 29 July 1944, there were 120 political prisoners, all classified as “German prisoners”.[6] During the Civil War, Lamia Prison became one of the country’s central detention centres for political prisoners, communists, captured rebels and citizens persecuted for their political beliefs. A total of 435 prisoners were executed by decision of the Lamia Special Military Court. The condemned men were held in a separate building opposite the main prison, on Othonos Street. The prison was abolished in 1969. Today, the building (36 Kapodistriou Street) houses a branch of the Hellenic Post Office (ELTA) and a car park. The building that housed the death row inmates during the Civil War is now home to the 10thPrimary School of
[1] “I fylakes Lamias [The prisons of Lamia]”, 02.11.2018, Amfiktyon blog, https://amfictyon.blogspot.com/2018/11/blog-post.html (last accessed: 24/11/2025).
[2] GRGSA, Ministry of Justice Archive, f. 174a , List of prisoners in state prisons as of 30 September [1941].
[3] GRGSA, Ministry of Justice Archive, f. 176 , Greek State/Ministry of Justice/Directorate of Penitentiary Administration, “To the Royal Italian Delegation regarding the situation in prisons, as per the memorandum forwarded to the Ministry,” Athens, 2.3.1943.
[4] Giorgos Chandrinos, 75 chronia Gorgopotamos: sidirodromikes ptyches mias istorikis anatinaksis [75th Anniversary of Gorgopotamos: Railway Aspects of a historic sabotage], Sidirotrochia no. 51 (2017), p. 26.
[5] NARA, T501, roll 255, Militärbefehlshaber Griechenland/Ic, Lagebericht für die Zeit vom 15.11 -30.11.1943, Anlage zu KTB; BArch, R 70 (Griechenland) /1, Begl. Abschrift, Der Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD für Griechanland. Athens, 3 November 1944.
[6] DAESS Archive, TB N. 16, EES, Committee for the Care of Disabled Persons, Lamia Department to the EES Prisoners of War Office, Ref. No. 167. Lamia, 29 July 1944.
