Ammon News - A notorious Russian prison complex that once housed jailed revolutionaries, toppled ministers and Soviet dissidents will be turned into a hotel, restaurants, museum and art gallery after being sold at auction on Friday, the site's new owner said.

Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky and writer Joseph Brodsky are among the roll call of famous Russians who were imprisoned at the Kresty jail complex in the imperial capital of Saint Petersburg.

Named after the Russian word for "crosses" in homage to its shape the jail's red-brick walls loom ominously over the banks of the Neva river.

But having fallen into disrepair, Russia built a new prison, shut down Kresty and put the historic site on the market.

In an auction on Friday it was sold it to a development group for 1.1 billion rubles ($12.5 million).

The group said in a statement it would transform the complex in "one of Saint Petersburg's most ambitious urban planning projects."

"There will be a museum preserving the memory and history of the location, as well as a hotel complex, restaurants, galleries and public spaces open to all," it said. AP