Torture Instruments Replace Masterpieces: A New Museum Experience at the Prison Museum

Text / Compiled and Reported by Chen Guanxin, MOOK Scenic Spots Travel Life Network; Information Provided / Mofo Editorial Department

 

Traveling around the world, visiting museums is one of the important ways to understand the local history and culture. However, in some countries’ museums, besides richly endowed and artistic exhibition spaces, there are also “prison museums” that are neither magnificent in appearance nor filled with artistic collections, but instead house horrifying exhibits. These include not only regular prisons for criminals, but also prisoner-of-war camps where political prisoners and POWs were tortured. For example, Vietnam’s infamous “Hanoi Hilton” is one of them. Below is a list of six prison museums from different countries. If you’re looking for a museum experience unlike any other, consider adding one to your itinerary.

 

1. Vietnam — Hỏa Lò Prison Museum

Hỏa Lò Prison Museum, originally known as Maison Centrale, was built by the French in 1896, as indicated by the two large words above the entrance. However, locals call it Hỏa Lò (which means “stove”), a name derived from the area’s past as a village of ceramic kilns. During the Vietnam War in 1973, when the U.S. Air Force bombed North Vietnam intensively and some bombers were shot down, the captured pilots were imprisoned here. Among the most well-known were Douglas Peterson, the first U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, and John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate. Due to the Viet Cong’s use of various inhumane tortures on war prisoners, the prison earned the eerie nickname “Hanoi Hilton” among American soldiers.

 

2. Japan — Abashiri Prison Museum

The Abashiri Prison Museum, converted from a real prison, was built in Meiji 45 (1912) and had housed inmates until Meiji 23 (1890). The museum’s radial five-wing cell block design is ingenious — requiring just one guard to oversee all cells. Other features such as the bathhouse and solitary confinement punishment cells allow visitors to immerse themselves in the experience. There’s also a “prison meal” and a “cold prison experience square” for hands-on interaction.

 

3. Finland — Prison Museum

This prison museum, located near Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, was formerly a men’s prison built in 1881. It continued housing inmates until 1993, after which it was converted into a museum in 1997. The prison museum retains the layout of the original facility across three floors. Aside from the top floor, which is now rented out as meeting rooms, the rest is open to the public. Upon entering, you can follow the path to explore rooms on both sides — including the guards’ residences and offices, as well as the majority of the “cells.” While you can’t enter the cells, you can peer inside through glass windows.

 

4. Singapore — Changi Prison Museum

Changi Prison was originally a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. In addition to battlefield captives, tens of thousands of civilians were also detained here under Japanese occupation. The simple wooden chapel in the prison courtyard was built by the prisoners themselves. After WWII, to ensure the public remembers the hardships of the occupation, the Singapore government transformed the prison into a museum, displaying letters, murals, photos, and personal belongings of the prisoners to commemorate that dark chapter.