Discovering enthralling Vietnamese history with 6 finest museums in Hanoi

Vietnam Fine Arts Museum is home to a large unique collections of art treasures dating from the prehistorical period through feudal dynasties to the modern era.

Visiting rich heritage and inspiring architecture museums when wandering around Hanoi is the best way to gain insight of Vietnam as well as the capital city’s thousand years of civilization.

1. Vietnam Fine Arts Museum

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Address: 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc street

The Vietnam Fine Arts Museum was housed in two colonial buildings of what used to be a boarding school for daughters of French officials. This place is home to a large unique collections of art treasures dating from the prehistorical period through feudal dynasties to the modern era.

The museum offers visitors a source of insight into the artistic genius of the Vietnamese people over time, as manifested in the many ancient and modern masterpieces on the show: works of painting, sculpture and the graphic arts.

2. Vietnam Women’s Museum

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Address: 36 Ly Thuong Kiet street, Hoan Kiem district.

The museum was established in 1987 and is run by the Vietnam Women’s Union. The facility has many functions of research, preservation, and display of tangible and intangible historical and cultural heritages of Vietnamese women and Vietnam Women’s Union. It is also a center for cultural exchange between Vietnamese and international women for the goal of equality, development, and peace.

Lonely Planet, the world biggest travel publisher described Vietnam Women’s museum as the most poignant memories of the wartime contributed by individual heroic women. The museum displays a stunning collection of propaganda posters, as well as costumes, tribal basketware and fabric motifs from Vietnam’s ethnic minority groups.

3. Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

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Address: Nguyen Van Huyen street, Cau Giay district. 

 The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi offers an insight into the 54 different ethnic groups of Vietnam, with full of information detailing traditional Vietnamese ways of life, from religious events to the symbolic rituals of all the Vietnamese ethnic groups, providing a rich tapestry of the culture melting pot in Vietnam.

4. Hoa Lo Prison Museum

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Address: 1 Hoa Lo street, Hoan Kiem district.

 It is the remains of the former Hoa Lo Prison, ironically nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton” by US prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. Most exhibits relate to the prison’s use up to the mid-1950s, focusing on the Vietnamese struggle for independence from France.

5. Vietnam Military History Museum

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Address: 28A Dien Bien Phu street, Ba Dinh district. 

 The Vietnam Military History Museum Hanoi, also known as the Army Museum, houses an extensive collection of weapons that were used throughout Vietnam’s war-filled history. Adjacent is the hexagonal Flag Tower, one of the symbols of Hanoi.

6. Hanoi Museum

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Address: Pham Hung street, Nam Tu Liem district.

 The site will provide visitors a deeper understanding of Hanoi city with thousands of artifacts relating to the capital from the past to the present and this is also the largest and the most modern museum in Vietnam.

Hanoi Times

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