Exhibition «Chân trần chí thép» (Bare Feet, Steel Will Power)

   Some stories only land when you hear them in the place where they happened. Behind the yellow walls of the old prison compound in Hoi An, thirty display panels now stand along the former cell block, telling the story of people who were held in jails like this one and came out with their convictions intact.

   The travelling display was put together by the Hoa Lo Prison Relic Management Board from Hanoi together with the Hoi An Centre for the Preservation of World Cultural Heritage. Its 30 panels fall into three parts: «Theo dấu chân Người», «Từ trong tù ngục» (From the Prison) and «Chân trần chí thép» (Bare Feet, Steel Will Power). The sequence runs from the path chosen by Hồ Chí Minh, through the years behind bars, to what the prisoners did once they were free.

   The middle section reaches far beyond Hoi An: photographs and documents name Hỏa Lò, Sơn La, Côn Đảo, Khám Lớn Sài Gòn and Lao Thừa Phủ. The curators call those places «special schools», where inmates were hardened into disciplined revolutionaries, and one panel carries the line «Nơi hầm tối là nơi sáng nhất» — the darkest cellar turns out to be the brightest room. The third part follows the men who later became commanders. Every caption is given in Vietnamese and English.

   The venue is an exhibit in its own right. Also known as Nhà lao Xóm Mới and Lao xá Hội An, the prison was built between 1960 and 1975 and was the last one raised in Hoi An to hold cadres, fighters and civilians from the Quảng Nam and Đà Nẵng area. On the night of 14 July 1967 an assault unit blew the main gate open and led 1,200 people out to safety; on 27 March 1975, one day before the town was liberated, the prison was stormed again and thousands of political prisoners walked free. The permanent display room holds more than 200 photographs, documents and objects, and the gatehouse, men's cell block, infirmary, women's cells, flagpole and watchtower have all been restored.

   A few practical notes before you go: the site works in two shifts a day, 7:30 - 11:30 and 13:30 - 17:30, and the gate closes over the long lunch break; the organisers have not announced a separate fee for the display, so ask at the entrance; much of the compound is open air, which makes early morning or late afternoon the comfortable choice.

   The display opened for the 81st anniversary of National Day, 2 September 1945 to 2 September 2026. If you have been walking the lantern-lit lanes and want the other half of the picture, this courtyard is the shortest way to it.