The prison where Mandela was held for 18 years, and other repurposed tourist attractions
- Chengdu’s mouldy Black Coffee Hotel made a far better bomb shelter than it did a hotel
- Istanbul’s 6th century Hagia Sophia is about to undergo yet another transformation
The recent global tourism slump has led to a number of sightseeing attractions and travel facilities being repurposed to help cope with the coronavirus fallout. Airports have been converted into drive-in cinemas in Uruguay and Lithuania; a high-speed French TGV train was kitted out as a mobile hospital; and hotels and luxury resorts from the Maldives to Jordan and Australia have been used as quarantine centres. Sports stadiums worldwide have doubled as Covid-19 testing sites and a cricket ground in Chandigarh, India, was turned into a jail for curfew violators.
Adapting old buildings and infrastructure is nothing new, of course. So, leaving the virus aside, let’s look at some places of note that have been revamped, remodelled or otherwise altered over the years.
Staying with jails, Nelson Mandela was locked up in the maximum security Robben Island prison for 18 of the 27 years he spent behind bars, before the fall of apartheid. Today, the Unesco World Heritage Site in South Africa is a museum with tours conducted by ex-political prisoners.
Meanwhile, in Turkey’s largest city, the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul At Sultanahmet hotel began life as a place of incarceration more than a century ago. Some of the original features can still be seen, such as the landscaped courtyard that once served as an exercise area. The cells are now suites and you won’t be surprised to learn that the food is much improved.
At the other end of the accommodation spectrum, the Black Coffee Hotel, in Chengdu, Sichuan province, began life as a bomb shelter and little attempt was made to beautify the warren of dimly lit, low-ceilinged underground tunnels pockmarked with slime and mould.