Hỏa Lò Prison (Hanoi Hilton)

Hỏa Lò Prison is one of the most historically complex sites in Hanoi — a French colonial prison built in 1896 that was used to hold Vietnamese political prisoners during the independence struggle and later became the prison where American pilots shot down during the Vietnam War were held as POWs. The Americans nicknamed it the 'Hanoi Hilton,' and Senator John McCain was among the most famous prisoners held here.

The museum's Vietnamese narrative focuses primarily on the prison's French colonial use — the conditions under which Vietnamese independence fighters were imprisoned, tortured, and executed by the French administration. The displays include the guillotine used for executions, the leg shackles that held prisoners in their cells, and the tunnels through which prisoners attempted (sometimes successfully) to escape. The American POW section, by contrast, presents the prisoners as having been treated humanely — a version of events that American survivors dispute and that reflects the ongoing complexity of Vietnam-US historical narratives.

The prison was mostly demolished in the 1990s to make way for the Hanoi Towers residential and commercial complex, and the remaining section (about a quarter of the original) has been preserved as a museum. The juxtaposition of the colonial-era prison walls with the luxury apartment towers built on the former prison grounds is Hanoi's most literal example of the country's post-war transformation — from imprisonment to property development in a single generation.