The beginnings of the Ig Castle prison (1946–1956)

Abstract

The Ig Castle prison was founded soon after the end of the Second World War. In early 1946, Mr and Mrs Palme, who had until then owned the castle and its pertaining estate, were dispossessed of all their landed property, buildings, and appurtenant inventory in compliance with the law on the agrarian reform. 49.57 hectares of land, including the castle building, were transferred under the Ministry of the Interior for the purposes of establishing the State Estate Ig near Ljubljana, which operated within the framework of the Correctional Facility Ljubljana. The restoration of the castle began in the winter of 1946/47 or no later than January 1947, when the building already accommodated the first convicts from the Correctional Facility Ljubljana. In November 1947, when the castle restoration was completed, the State Electric-Metal Company Motor was transferred from Ljubljana to Ig as well, together with convicts from the Correctional Facility Ljubljana that worked in it. At the end of 1947, the castle and the State Estate Ig employed 264 convicts. The company Motor gradually set up four workshops: an electric workshop producing electric motors, a locksmith workshop producing agricultural machines, a shoemaking workshop, and a carpentry workshop. The company operated at Ig until May 1950, when it was transferred to Škofja Loka.

Following the departure of the company Motor, the Ig Castle remained the seat of the Ig State Estate or Economy, as it was later called. Although it engaged in agriculture and livestock production, there is little information on its operations during the transitional period. At that time, the Ig Castle also housed the school of the State Section for Home Affairs. More activities were documented from 1954 onwards, when independent Men’s Correctional Facility Ig was opened. A few skilled crafts workshops were re-established, and the Ig Economy increased its operations as well. The convicts also worked at two major and several minor sites outside the facility. However, the independent Men’s Correctional Facility Ig only operated for a brief period, until July 1956, when male prisoners were transferred to Dob and Škofja Loka as well as to other prisons across Slovenia, and when female convicts were transferred to Ig from the Correctional Facility Brestanica.

Little is known about the living conditions of the male convicts at Ig. More information is provided for the period after the establishment of the independent correctional facility, primarily by memorial literature and to some extent by archival materials. Many inmates serving their sentences at Ig were political prisoners, including several priests. In their memoirs, some provided detailed descriptions of their life in prison and work in various workshops.