There are reasons to preserve a public building that, not having a notable heritage or artistic value, has lost its use. They are “ecological” reasons, which have less to do with economic saving than with what we call the ecology or memory. Urban experience gets richer when built memories pile up like strata in the city’s palimpsest.

Jaen Prison is not at Paseo de la Estación anymore, but this site and the building in it are filled with its long memory. An unpleasant past seems to ask for oblivion and this would justify the building whole demolition. But collective memory can also enjoy contemplating the transmutation of the somber into the luminous. Then refurbishment can be more rewarding than rebuilding.

Old walls of the prison pavilions can be useful to house the museum rooms if the change their roofs to let the light in. It will be necessary to demolish the old admission building to create an entry raised square, that gives the museum its own urban previous scene. The perimeter wall needs to be drilled to convert the prison courtyards into urban sculpture gardens that can be visited directly from the outside.