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The main attraction in Son La town is
Son La colonial prison. Located in the
heart of the city with a hill named Khau Ca and Nam La stream, Son La Prison is
a proof of a historical period of revolutionary struggle and indomitable spirit
of communists exiled by the French colonists. Let’s us discover the famous
prison in the following article.
Son La Prison was well built by the French in 1908 with an initial area of 500
m2, stone and brick walls, tin roof, and no ceilings. This prison had stone beds
for prisoners with smooth cement surface and the outer edges attached to the
systems of shackles along the length of the floors. In each cell, there were
latrines located above the floor with no cover, no flushing, and not being
cleaned regularly. With such a design style, a lot of diseases occurred and
spread very quickly in prisoners.
In 1930, the Communist Party of Vietnam launched and led the people to fight
against the brutal regime of colonial feudal. The movement made the French
colonists surprised. They arrested the Vietnam patriots with the aim of
extinguishing the revolutionary movement.
On the other hand, the French colonists strengthened to build and expand the
prison systems in the country. Especially, they paid much attention to Son La
Prison. In 1940, Son La Prison was extended to a large jail to add some female
prisoners but the plot was not done.
Thus, after being constructed and expanded three times, Son La Prison had a
total area of 2.170 m2. The French colonists turned the place into a living hell
to prison, exile, and kill the will of the Communists. However, this prison was
the place that Vietnam patriots’ spirit was trained. The most notable patriot
was To Hieu.
After being devastated by the wars, the ancient ruins dilapidated. The intact
remaining is a peach tree of To Hieu. It is a symbol of a loyal soldier. In
1980, the Museum of Son La province began to restore this prison. Fences were
rebuilt while two watchtowers, kitchens, large jails, tunnels, underground
cells, and walls were restored.
Each year, the historic Son La prison welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists
to visit or study. Coming here, you will be carefully guided to understand what
happened in the past at prison. You may admire the indomitable spirit of
communists. In spite of being tortured and bearing extremely difficult living
conditions, they were loyal and fought against the French colonists. They are To
Hieu, Le Duan, Truong Chinh, Nguyen Luong Bang and many other soldiers. In
particular, Son La Prison is the resting place of To Hieu, the leader of the
Vietnam indomitable revolutionary while being imprisoned here.
If you have a chance to come to Son La, you should not miss this prison. It is
the place that you can learn and recall the war happening more than a century. |
