Hoa Lo Prison (aka "the Hanoi Hilton") (Hanoi)

 museum, prison museum

Hỏa Lò Prison later known to American prisoners of war as the "Hanoi Hilton", was a prison used by the French colonists in Vietnam for political prisoners and later by North Vietnam for prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.

The name "Hỏa Lò", literally translated as "fiery furnace" or even "Hell's hole", also means "stove". The name originated from the street name "phố Hỏa Lò", due to the concentration of stores selling wood stoves and coal-fire stoves along the street from pre-colonial times. American POW's gave it nicknames: "Alcatraz", "Briarpatch", "Dirty Bird" "Hanoi Hilton" , "The Zoo", "Heartbreak Hotel," "New Guy Village," "Little Vegas," and "Camp Unity."

Conditions were appalling; food was watery soup and bread. Prisoners were variously isolated, starved, beaten, tortured for countless hours and paraded in anti-American propaganda. "It's easy to die but hard to live," a prison guard told one new arrival, "and we'll show you just how hard it is to live." The Vietnamese also have bitter memories of the prison, for many Vietnamese revolutionaries were kept and tortured there by French colonists.

Most of the walls of the "Hanoi Hilton", had been torn down to make way for new construction. Portions of the walls were retained for historical reasons. "Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel", was built in Hanoi and opened in 1999, but Hilton carefully avoided reusing the dreaded name "Hanoi Hilton". In this VR panorama scene(www.360vietnam.net/pano/?pano=33), you can see the office and residential highrise "Hanoi Towers" was built on this historical site and its top floors can be seen rising behind the prison's roof.