Theformer garrison barracks on Susisaari , one of the islands of the Suomenlinna sea fortress(Finland), were built during the Russian era, in 1866 68, to accommodate 500 soldiers . Abarrel vaulted corridor split the building in two. The eastern side housed six and the westernside five barrel vaulted dormitories plus vaulted kitchens at each end. After the Civil War thebuilding was used as part of a prisoner of war camp and held as many as 1740 red prisoners.After 1919, until the end of the 1930s, the barracks were used by the military. In the early 1940sthe spaces were divided into small apartments, that were demolished in 1972, when the mainstorage of the Finnish National Museum was located in the building . In the renovation of 198385 the building was converted for the use of the Nordic Arts Centre . This work shows how thegarrison barracks on Susisaari are useful to analyse the concentration camp as a model of 20thcentury European architecture.