How did Harry Potter’s Azkaban prison come about?

Azkaban is known as the dark prison of the Harry Potter universe, created by the author J.K. Rowling🇧🇷 The fortress located on an island in the middle of the North Sea, close to Europe, which had never appeared on any map – whether it was muggle or wizard – and, therefore, it is supposed to have been created through magical means.

The detention center is responsible for imprisoning some of the most dangerous convicts in the wizarding world, and is surrounded by dementors trying to prevent the escape of all prisoners. But how did the prison actually come about?

According to a text published by the writer herself through the Wizarding World website, the franchise’s official platform, it was built in the 15th century, but not with the aim of being a prison right from the start. At that time, the fortress was supposed to house a sorcerer named Ekrizdis who, though unknown, was very powerful and a practitioner of the worst kinds of Dark Arts.

After his death, the protection spells used by the wizard to keep the island hidden were automatically undone, making it easier for the place to be discovered by the Ministry of Magic. However, all those who dared to enter the building to investigate what was happening there left refusing to share what they saw inside. Since that time, the region was already surrounded by dementors.

For this reason, several authorities defended the idea that Azkaban would be an evil place, and that it should be demolished as soon as possible. However, many people were also afraid of what could happen if the dementors who lived there no longer had their home, fearing a terrible revenge from the creatures.

the text of Rowling it even states that specialists in constructions made with or through Dark Magic warned that the structure of Azkaban itself could carry out a revenge if someone tried to destroy it. With the huge discussion, the region remained abandoned for several years.

In 1692, the International Statute of Secrecy was imposed, and the Ministry of Magic felt the need to find a new place to imprison convicted wizards as the old cells located in villages and towns were not as safe, causing several leaks and placing jeopardizing the protection of citizens.

In this way, the old abandoned building filled with dementors became an option for the Minister of Magic, Democles Rowle, an extremely prejudiced thoroughbred, who was known to be radical and sadistic. He created the necessary plans to turn Azkaban into a prison, championing the idea that the Dementors could become the region’s guards, saving the Ministry expense, time, and labor.

According to the plan of Democleswhen working for the institution, the dementors could feed on the emotions of all the prisoners found there – including, many of those who were sent to Azkaban never returned.

For nearly three centuries, no one cared about the cruelties that went on in prison. The only real change made to the building was the enlargement and expansion of cells made by Hesphaestus Gore🇧🇷 Only in the government Kingsley Shackleboltfrom 1998, the idea of ​​changing what happened in the detention center was raised again.

With the new Minister, the Dementors were finally purged from Azkaban and replaced by Aurors, specialized and highly trained agents to deal with the Dark Arts.