In the past, Hoa Lo Prison was closed to visitors after office hours. However, in recent years, the site has become alive every weekend night with the launch of a night tour.
The night tour offers a unique experience with a combination of sounds and lights, which change as you walk through different rooms inside the prison-turned-museum.
Visitors can also listen to audio about the prison structure and moving stories about the struggles of political prisoners during the tour and watch short stage plays recalling the hardships, resolute resilience and patriotism of Hoa Loa prisoners.
During the tour, visitors offer incense to pay tribute to heroes, fallen soldiers, and patriots at the memorial site inside the prison.
Nguyen Minh Huong, a student at Thanh Xuan Trung Secondary School in Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi, shared that through this trip, she gained a deeper understanding of the hardships that revolutionary soldiers had to experience and the deep pain of Vietnamese mothers.
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A short stage play recalls the hardships, resolute resilience and patriotism of Hoa Loa prisoners. (Photo: Hoa Lo Prison Relic) |
“This trip has brought me many tears. I want to thank the fallen heroes who had sacrificed their lives for us to live a peaceful and beautiful life like today,” Huong said.
The relic site of Hoa Lo Prison today covers around 2,400 sq.m, just 1/5 of the original total area.
However, the site’s management board held that the value of Hoa Lo Prison lies in the history of the revolutionary struggle for national liberation.
This sound viewpoint helped the board to design effective measures to promote the historical value of Hoa Lo Prison to local people and visitors.
To spread the value of the relic, the board has paid due attention to preserving the original architecture, fostering research, collecting documents and artefacts about Hoa Lo Prison, and developing activities which provide authentic and attractive experiences for participants.
The activities are divided into groups. In addition to the regular exhibitions, the management board also organises thematic exhibitions to celebrate historical events or important holidays in the country.
For example, on Wounded and Fallen Soldiers’ Day in July 2024, visitors to Hoa Lo Prison Relic are introduced to the interactive exhibition ‘Thap Ngon Lua Hong’ (Lighting up the Red Flame).
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Hoa Lo Prison's night tour features a short stage play recalling the hardships, resolute resilience and patriotism of Hoa Loa prisoners. (Photo: Hoa Lo Prison Relic) |
Accordingly, they were invited to experience the dark and stuffy death row and watched a short play re-enacting the last meeting between comrade Nguyen Van Man and his wife - comrade Mai Ngoc Thuyet and their daughter. Both led active revolutionary lives and were imprisoned at Hoa Lo before being exiled to Con Dao Prison in 1933.
Through exhibited documents and images, visitors gained insights into the stories of revolutionary soldiers united by their ideals and shared purpose.
Valuable materials on key revolutionary movements were displayed at the event, including the Revolutionary movement (1930-1931) and the movement for freedom and democracy (1936-1939).
The site’s management board has also been active in hosting interactive activities and experiential programmes, such as a contest on Hoa Lo Prison’s history and talks with historical witnesses arrested and imprisoned by the French colonialists at Hoa Lo Prison.
Assorted educational activities for the younger generation and students have also been held regularly, such as the Golden Bell Challenge, the painting contest on Hoa Lo Prison, and a narrator competition, which helps entrants learn history lessons in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-remember way.
According to Dr Pham Quoc Quan, a member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Association, historical events have become more lively at exhibitions at Hoa Lo Prison, bringing viewers a different and interesting experience.
Thanks to the management board’s initiatives, from a little-known relic, Hoa Lo Prison has become one of the most intriguing tourist spots in Hanoi and established itself as a successful example for other relic sites to attract more visitors.
