Hoa Lo Prison Museum
Though the Hoa Lo Prison Monument is undoubtedly not for everyone, it is nonetheless a significant Hanoi landmark. Hoa Lo Prison Museum was initially built by the French colonial administration in the late 19th century to house Vietnamese revolutionaries and any other dissidents of the French rule.
It was built with the intention of holding only a few hundred inmates, but that number quickly rose to more than 2,000. Regrettably, the captives were housed in filthy, appalling conditions. Hoa Lo Prison served as a representation of French colonial oppression until 1954, when the Vietnamese gave it a new function. Regrettably, nothing changed, but the prisoners did. Then, during the Vietnam War, it was applied to American POWs. It is better known to many foreign visitors as the facility where US POWs were imprisoned during the Vietnam War (known as the American War in Vietnam). John McCain is the most well-known former inmate who came from a foreign country.
The French guillotine is also on exhibit, along with communal jail cells, solitary cells, and a courtyard on the prison grounds. There is a wealth of material on this site on Vietnam's protracted struggle against French colonial power, including information about the harsh conditions that prisoners were subjected to. Together with a video detailing their detention and final liberation, two rooms also depict the narrative of the American POWs detained here. These rooms also contain the detainees' personal belongings. The prison can be seen as one of the Best Places to Visit In Hanoi.
Address: 1 Pho Hoa Lo Phuong Tran Hung Đao 11019 Hanoi
Phone: +84 24 3934 2253
Opening hours: 8 am - 5 pm
Rating: 4.0/5.0, 10667 Tripadvisor reviews
Website: https://hoalo.vn/
