Hoa Lo Prison: In addition to brutal torture images, the barrage of guerrillas brought the Hoa Lo Prison into the top five most frightening places in Southeast Asia. Hoa Lo Prison is located at No. 1 Hoa Lo Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi. The relic remains long with time until today. It is a clear evidence for a whole period of miserable history and hard work, symbolizing the indomitable and resilient spirit of Vietnamese patriotic.
How Hoa Lo Prison is unique?
Hoa Lo Prison, formerly known as Maison Centrale, means the central scheme, and the Vietnamese name of Hanoi Prison. It is an old prison located on Hoa Lo Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi. This prison was built by France in 1896 in the area that was the periphery of the city, with the aim of serving as a central prison for both Central China and Tonkin, imprisoning mainly political prisons. And the patriots against the colonial government.
Under the French colonial rule, Hoa Lo prisonwas designed to be constructed with a structure consisting of 4m high stone walls, 0.5m thick reinforced with electric steel wire.
The entire prison area is divided into 4 zones: A, B, C, D
- A, B: for investigating offenders, unimportant offenders or offenders in prison discipline
- C: for French or foreign prisoners
- D: for prisoners waiting for death sentence
The total area of the former prison area is over 12,000m2. However, today only 2.434m2 is retained, preserved to become a relic, serving the purpose of sightseeing for those who want to come and witness the view of the colonial prison.
Dubbed the “earthly hell” place, the most feared prison in Southeast Asia. During its time of operation, Hoa Lo Prison became a detention place of generations of soldiers and houses. Vietnamese revolutionary activities with the prison architecture were designed with torture and forced forms of cruelty. But the most typical of which is the guillotine, the machine that has put the prison to enroll in the top 10. The world’s most infamous prison.
Writing from 1939-1945, a female political prisoner once rewritten in the memoir “Five Months Never Lost”, displayed at the prison as follows:
Prison life
“… Every week the prisoners’ food changes according to regulations: Sunday a pork meal, usually pork or silver meat. Three meals of old buffalo meat, the rest were meals of bighead fish, oil fish to boil the whole intestine, dried fish were forced out of oil, moldy and boiled, boiled tofu. Vegetables are depending on the season. Rice is usually white broken rice of the South for so long that it has a beetle, eating light, medium bitter. Eating rice for a long time, many people have heart edema. There are months of death of up to 40 people … ”.
The brutal repression is that, patriotism and revolutionary struggle continue to rekindle in the dark space of the prison. Revolutionary propaganda sessions, academic movements, political reasoning classes are still underground, despite the colonial whip aimed at propagating the Party’s ideals, enlightening soldiers and contacting groups outside, fighting for the right to life. Not only that, revolutionary newspapers. Such as “Prison Life” and “Prison Journal” were also born in the very life of oppression and exploitation to educate and raise the Party’s awareness, burning up. Revolutionary fire from the enemy’s heart. Also thanks to such activities, the life of prison here also partly reduced the darkness.
After liberating the capital in 1954. Hoa Lo Prison used to detain American pilots until 1973. With its historical role. The current Hoa Lo Prison became a place. Interesting sights in Hanoi attract a lot of tourists.
Hoa Lo prison entrance fee
Ticket price: 30,000 VND / person
Subject to reduce 50%:
- Student (with student ID card)
- People with disabilities
- Old people (who is a Vietnamese 60 and above)
- Persons belonging to social policy
Free subjects:
- Children under 15 years old
- People with meritorious contribution to the revolution
- Membership: Veterans, Resistance Liaison, Prison Liaison in the country.
It’s good for
- Veterans, Students Group
- Suitable for educational tour in Vietnam
Beside Hoa Lo you may check here for all sightseeing places in Hanoi. Or give us a call for more information +84829098686
Images Source: Internet
