In 1946, the Franciscan dormitory’s building was confiscated and converted to the Internal Branch’s building. Storage rooms at the bottom of the structure were adapted to detainment centers and interrogation rooms. They were separated by two corridors, one of which had 7 cell couples opposite to each other, overall 28 cells:14 from the yard side, which were lighted, and 14 from the other, which was lighted only by the corridor where there were two windows.
In the ground floor cells, only political detainees under interrogation were held. After the court gave its ruling, they would be distributed to other prisons and camps. Death convicts were held in special cells until the execution date.
During the dictatorship’s years, renowned intellectuals of the northern town and beyond were imprisoned and tortured, such as Zef Pllumi, Ernest Çoba, Benardin Palaj etc.
In the 80s, some cells were added on the second floor, but only ordinary convicts were held there, who were considered privileged to the political ones.
The Internal Branch’s building operated until the communist regime’s official fall in 1992, when it became the Police Station.
Today, this building is a museum dedicated to the memory of the crimes of communism called Site of Witness and Memory.