Visit Hoa Lo Prison Museum

Hoa Lo Jail, also known as Maison Centrale, is a symbol of the strong will of the prisoners and their sacrifice for their communist ideals. It is a famously inhumane prison with horrific punishment that is located right in the Vietnamese capital.

Hoa Lo Prison Museum was first built by the French colonial government in the late 19th century to house Vietnamese revolutionaries and any other dissidents of the French rule. Records show that during the 1930s, there were around 2000 prisoners housed in the facility, which was initially designed to hold only 450 people. It is well known to many international tourists as the jail where American POWs were kept during the Vietnam War (known as the American War in Vietnam). John McCain is the most well-known prison 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.