Although officially closed at the moment, the KGB Museum in Vilnius would probably remain longer in the visitor's memory than any of the city's more attractive features.
Located in a basement on Gedimino Prospect, most of the museum's 58 rooms remain untouched since the last prisoner was released in 1987.
We were lucky to persuade the current caretaker of the museum, Gintaras Vaichiunas, to show us round the initially anonymous-looking basement.
That Mr Vaichiunas was himself a former prisoner of the "museum" for three months in 1945 lent an uncomfortable edge of realism to our tour.
The first room he pointed out in the chilly, silent basement was actually little more than a largish cupboard, known as "the Box," where up to 15 people would be kept on their arrival. We were told that prisoners were allowed one shower every 10 days -- even then the water could be too hot, too cold or stop without warning.
The most harrowing moment was standing in another room at the end of the corridor and suddenly being informed that this was where, from 1944 to 1947, 800 people had been shot.
The museum is in desperate need of funds for repair work.
Mr Vaichiunas said the Ministry of Culture would not provide the money he did not know if the museum would be able to open again.
The Ministry of Culture said the museum would not open again "until sometime next year."
They could not give a specific date.