Hoa Lo Prison, more popularly known as the "Hanoi Hilton", is a museum near the French Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam. It was first built in the late 1890s by Vietnam's French colonizers as a central prison (Maison Centrale) for Vietnamese criminals.
The prison was built in Hanoi by the French, in dates ranging from 1886–1889 to 1898 to 1901, when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina. The French called the prison Maison Centrale - a traditional euphemism to denote prisons in France. It was located near Hanoi's French Quarter. It was intended to hold Vietnamese prisoners, particularly political prisoners agitating for independence who were often subject to torture and execution. A 1913 renovation expanded its capacity from 460 inmates to 600. It was nevertheless often overcrowded, holding some 730 prisoners on a given day in 1916, a figure which would rise to 895 in 1922 and 1,430 in 1933. By 1954 it held more than 2000 people; with its inmates held in subhuman conditions, it had become a symbol of colonialist exploitation and of the bitterness of the Vietnamese towards the French.
Known widely by the nickname ‘Hanoi Hilton’ given to it by the Americans during the Second Indochina War, Hoa Lo Prison was originally established by the French colonial government in 1896 for the purpose of detaining political prisoners and formed part of a northern network of ‘unjust and cruel prisons’ which included Cao Bang, Son La, Lai Chau and Hai Phong. Many leading revolutionaries were incarcerated here during the French colonial period, including Phan Boi Chau, Hoang Trong Mau, Luong Van Can, Nguyen Quyen, Nguyen Luong Bang and five future General Secretaries of the Communist Party - Nguyen Van Cu, Le Duan, Truong Chinh, Nguyen Van Linh and Do Muoi. Between 1964 and 1973 the prison’s inmates included several captured American pilots, notably Senator John McCain and Douglas 'Pete' Peterson, America’s first Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Getting to the Hanoi Hilton
Hoa Lo Prison is most easily accessible by taxi; 1 Pho Hoa Lo is right at the corner of Pho Ha Ba Trung, south of Hoan Kiem Lake on the lip of the French Quarter.
The Prison occupies the length of Pho Hoa Lo, which runs from Pho Hai Ba Trung to Pho Tho Nhuom. Only its southern end remains - the rest was swallowed up by the Hanoi Towers complex in the 1990s.
Operating hours are from 8am to 5pm, every day of the week, with a lunch break from 11:30am to 1:30pm. To get in, you'll need to pay an entrance fee of VND 10,000 (about fifty cents) at the gate, but a color brochure will be provided to you upon payment. Photography is permitted.
