During the communist period this building, which started life as a Franciscan seminary, was officially used as the Shkodra headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. What that actually means is that it was an interrogation centre and prison for political detainees. Over the years, thousands of people spent time here – some never to re-emerge. The museum does a reasonable job of illustrating the horrors that took place here, although much of the signage is in Albanian.
There are walls of photos of some victims who died here, and testimonies from survivors, and you can still see the original cells and interrogation rooms.