The dungeons below the royal palace had never been designed to hold the thousands of political prisoners the revolution created. So the newly-formed State had Bedlam Prison constructed. It was built by the prisoners themselves. Among them were artisans who had flourished under the monarchy, whose comparative wealth had made them targets in the popular uprising. There they were worked to death. Their accumulated knowledge and skill, passed down through generations, was lost forever in a few short years, and the art and architecture of the Late Kingdom was never again surpassed.

David Nassar – Bareheep: A History