Hoa Lo Prison

That gate stands on Hỏa Lò Street, and the French words above it mean "Central Prison". The "Hanoi Hilton" was never a hotel. It was the mocking nickname that American pilots held here between 1964 and 1973 gave the prison. The pilot Bob Shumaker says he was the first to write the name down, in 1965. It later became the title of a 1987 Hollywood film, The Hanoi Hilton.

Hỏa Lò: The Part of a Prison Kept for Remembering

Local people called the place by an older name. This land was once Phụ Khánh village, which made kettles, pots and stoves from fired clay; its kilns burned day and night, so the village's everyday Vietnamese (Nôm) name was Hỏa Lò. The French colonial authorities began building the prison in 1896, moved the whole village away, and people called the prison after the village rather than by its official name. Before it was even finished it was already taking prisoners, from 1899, and at one point it held nearly 2,000 people. After 1954 it became Hanoi's detention centre, and kept doing that job until 1993. Today it holds no one: the site is open to visitors during the day, sells admission tickets, and has an audio guide and on-site guides in Vietnamese and English.

In 1993 roughly four-fifths of the land was converted to build Hanoi Towers, one building of serviced apartments and one of offices. Roughly one-fifth, at the southeast corner along Hỏa Lò Street, was kept and restored as a memorial site, and ranked a National Historic Site in 1997. What you walk through today is the part of the memory that was chosen to stay: the men's prison, the dungeon (cachot) that the site calls "the hell of hell", the cells for women with small children, four death-row cells, and two sewer openings from two prison escapes. And one very small object: a pen that political prisoners made themselves, its barrel a dry branch of the bàng (Indian almond) tree, its nib a coral-vine bud, its ink methylene blue asked for at the infirmary. Are you curious what people learned, and what they learned with, in a place where even bowls and chopsticks were banned? From around late 1931 to early 1932, communist prisoners set up a Party cell (chi bộ, the Party's smallest unit), put out a handwritten newspaper, "Lao tù đỏ" ("Red Prison"), and studied in small classes inside their cells. The site calls this turning the prison into a school.

The site describes itself as evidence of the sacrifice and struggle of patriotic and revolutionary fighters, and as an indictment of the French colonial prison system. It still does the work of a memorial: at the Memorial, in black and red stone carved with eight golden words, "Kiên trung bất khuất - vinh quang đời đời" ("Steadfast and unyielding – eternal glory"), schools and agencies come to offer incense, report their achievements, and admit new members of the Communist Party and the Communist Youth Union. But memory here speaks with more than one voice. About the years American pilots were held here, among them John McCain and Douglas "Pete" Peterson, who later became the first US Ambassador to Vietnam, the site's exhibition says they were given the best possible living conditions, while the accounts of former American POWs describe mistreatment. The prison has also, at times, opened at night for a programme called "Đêm thiêng liêng" ("Sacred Night"), in which visitors played political prisoners and walked through cells, death-row cells and sewers. About four-fifths of the old prison has become buildings. What will you go to hear the rest of it say?

Timeline

1. 1896A French colonial prison built from 1896
2. 1899from 1899
3. 1954After 1954 it became Hanoi's detention centre
4. 1987It later became the title of a 1987 Hollywood film
5. 1993and kept doing that job until 1993
6. 1997ranked a National Historic Site in 1997

Enough to decide whether to go

What it is

A French colonial prison built from 1896; ranked a National Historic Site in 1997

Other names

Maison Centrale ("Central Prison"); "Hanoi Hilton", a nickname given by American POWs, not a hotel

What remains

About one-fifth of the old prison, at its southeast corner; the rest is now Hanoi Towers

Don't miss

The bàng-branch pen, the dungeon (cachot), the death-row cells, two escape sewers, the room of 1,651 names

Visiting

Open during the day, tickets sold; guides in Vietnamese and English (verified 11/09/2026)

Address

1 Hỏa Lò Street, Cửa Nam Ward, Hanoi (a ward, phường, is the administrative unit below the city)