( CNN ) -- The building in Amstetten , eastern Austria , seems innocuous enough . But it is underneath this family home -- - now known as `` the house of horror '' -- that a woman was held for nearly 24 years by her father and repeatedly raped , giving birth to seven children as a result . The bathroom used by the woman , who was held captive for more than two decades , and her three children . Now the first images have begun to emerge of the series of rooms in which 73-year-old man Josef Fritzl says he imprisoned his daughter , and three of her surviving children , in a basement 50-60 meters square that he converted himself . Police and authorities who have been down into the cellar after Fritzl gave them the electronic combination -- say that the rooms are very low , less than five-and-a-half feet high . The rooms included a sleeping quarters , a kitchen and a bathroom , all of which are said to be `` very dark , narrow and damp , '' reports CNN correspondent Fred Pleitgen . Watch a report on details of the case » . Elisabeth Fritzl has told officers that conditions were `` dire '' and that she and her children had little food and clothing . None had seen the light of day during their entire time in captivity , she told police . One photograph shows the white-tiled walls and floors of the bathroom and some token attempts to introduce some semblance of normality . A small child-like cutout of a yellow snail has been stuck over the sink , while a large plastic elephant sits atop the green bathroom cabinet . Above that , as elsewhere in the bathroom , droops a small plastic plant . Other accoutrements of everyday life litter the scene , including a hot water bottle , a small wooden chair and a towel . What looks like a wooden glass-framed door has been painted red ; through the doorway is the bath itself , crammed in next to a toilet with a green seat . Above the bath is what looks like a large image of a flower , aside other decorations that appear to have been put on the walls . But the overwhelming sense from the images is one of grimness . The only evident light in this windowless room comes from the small bulb set into the bathroom cabinet ; despite the whiteness of the walls , floor and bathroom fittings , it is a room that can not hide its oppression as one of the few rooms that the three children , if reports are correct , have ever known . Other pictures convey the grimness of the dungeon still further . A narrow corridor , just over the width of a floor tile , leads down from what seems to be a kitchen area to sleeping quarters . A table in the foreground appear to have a cloth over it ; a dressing gown hangs from the hook . But the spartan conditions and cramped conditions can not belie the rooms ' true purpose . A third image shows a corner of the dungeon with a wooden wall and construction materials piled up in a heap . A set of tiles has been fixed to the wall in what seem to be two sides of a doorway , blocked by what looks like a white rectangular board . Police at a press conference Monday said that this image showed the exit from the dungeon , controlled on the other side by an electronic keyless lock . E-mail to a friend .
Austrian father confesses he held daughter prisoner for nearly 24 years First images emerge of the cellar dungeon in which she , three children held The rooms include a sleeping quarters , a kitchen and a bathroom . A man who confessed to holding his young daughter, her husband and their two sons hostage for almost four decades has been sentenced to life imprisonment.