Description of the attraction
The Vietnamese Army Museum is located not far from the Cote Co flag tower, with which it forms a single thematic complex. This hexagonal tower itself is a landmark of the 19th century, one of the surviving buildings of the era of French colonization. Built in 1812 as an observation tower, outwardly the tower resembles a pyramid directed into the sky. From its 30-meter height, views of Hanoi can be seen. And the tower itself, with the Vietnamese flag at the top, stands out against the backdrop of the ensemble of museum buildings. There are several of them, located on the site of the former barracks of French soldiers. Together with open-air areas, the area of the museum exceeds ten thousand square kilometers.
The museum opened in 1959 after the end of the war against French colonization. Although the history of the Vietnamese army goes back more than two millennia, most of the exhibition is devoted to the heroic pages of the bloody and prolonged war of independence. Over 160 thousand exhibits allow one to estimate the scale of the battle that the small country waged against the largest states - France and the United States.
In 30 museum halls, photographs, documents, military maps, personal belongings of ordinary soldiers, rifles, machine guns and other weapons are displayed. In open areas, military equipment is located - captured and the one on which the Vietnamese army fought, including Soviet tanks and fighters. Near the Cote Co tower, you can see a number of ancient military equipment, for example, cannons dating back to the 19th century.
As conceived by the organizers of the museum, its expositions have not changed since the day of opening - in order to preserve the unique heroic atmosphere of that time.
