It is a two-storey building with a rectangular plan, located in the courtyard of the Venetian Palace to the west of Namık Kemal Square. The door of the single cell opens to the courtyard of the Venetian Palace. There is a nave in front of the rectangular planned room on the upper floor.
Namık Kemal was exiled to Cyprus on April 9, 1873, after the play “Homeland or Silistre” was performed at the Istanbul Gedik Pasha Theater on April 5, 1873. The poet, who was initially locked in the dungeon on the lower floor, was later taken to the upper floor with the permission of the Governor of Cyprus, Veyis Pasha.
On June 3, 1876, he was pardoned by Murat V and returned to Istanbul. The restoration and landscaping works of the “Namık Kemal Prison and Museum” were carried out by the Surveying and Restoration Branch of the Department of Antiquities and Museums in 1993 and opened to visitors.