Quang Tri ancient citadel The Quang Tri citaedl was built in 1824 by the order of King Minh Mang. It is located in Thach Han village, Hai Lang district, initially the citadel was a work of earth. Four years later it was rebuilt with bricks.

In 1972 during the phasing out of the American intervention in the Vietnam Was, the liberation army seized the citadel from the Sai Gon troops. The stationing liberation troops had to suffer the heaviest and longest artillery and bombing attacks ever launched by the Saigon army to recapture the citadel. The citadel located in an enclosed area of about two square kilometers had to endure the velocity of bombing and artillery explosion which was equal to eight times the velocity of the atomic bomb dropped by the US in Hiroshima in Japan in 1954.

At present visitors to the site of the ancient Quang Tri Citadel can still see several pieces of brick wall of the citadel. They are all what have been left after the 36-day battle back in 1972. One can imagine these standing brick walls as some sort of war memorials to those fallen combatants in the fight at the Quang Tri citadel.

Truong Son Cemetry :
The cemetery was built on several low lying hills in Truong Son village, Gio Linh district. In the cemetery there are a big war memorial, a stela house and a group of statutes, as high as 10 meters, depicting those fallen combatants who had sacrificed their lives for national liberation and independence.

The big stela bears an inscription highly evaluating the sacrifices and merits contributed to the national liberation war by those soldiers who had kept the Ho Chi Minh Trail connected all the time for the continuation of material and man power supply from the north to the battlefields in the south.

Ben Hai River-Hien Luong Bridge :
Ben Hai River also has another name: Rao Thanh River. The upper reach of the river is on a stretch of 100 kilometers to meet the sea at Cua Tung (Tung River mouth). The widest part of the river is about 200 meters. The portion where the Hien Luong Bridge spans across is about 170 meters.

Hien Luong steel Bridge was first built by French sappers in 1950. Earlier the only means of transport across the river was by boat. The bridge was 178 meters long and had seven girders. The birders. The bridge surface was paved with wood planks.

Under the Geneva Agreement on Vietnam signed in 1954 Ben Hai river on the 17th parallel has been selected as a temporary demarcation line separating the country regrouping purposes. The DMZ area had Hien Luong Bridge divided into two parts w hich served as the border gates to both sides.

Nowadays Hien Luong Bridge has become a historic landmark and a great tourist attraction. The existence of the bridge reflects the miraculous strength of the Vietnamese people throughout the course of the 20-year-long resistance war national independence, freedom and rail independence, freedom and reunification of the entire Vietnam.

Quang Tri Citadel :
Quang Tri Citadel was built in 1824, during the 4th year of the reign of Minh Mang, in Trieu Hai district, Quang Tri province. The citadel is approximately 60 km north of Hue.

The citadel had a style of Vo-bang architecture with its circuit of 2.160 meters – one door each side. There were four fortressed jutting out from each four corners to control the four citadel gates. Inside was the town palace surrounded by a system of thick walls with circuit of 400 meters. The town palace was a three-roomed house whose two wings were used as places for the King to worship, and to give promotions to his inferiors or to occasionally celebrate festivals. Outside the town palace, there were a flagpole and castles such as Tuan Vu, An Sat and Lanh Binh and a rice store, etc and under the French domination, soldier camp and tax agency were added. However there are no remains of the past there nowadays – due to the destruction of U.S bombs in the hot summer of 1972.

The incident of 81 days and nights (from June 28 to September 16, 1972) has made this citadel well-known all over the world. By using fire-power, the South Vietnam puppet troop was determined to re-occupy Quang Tri old citadel within a couple of days. Quang Tri town, therefore, had to suffer from the U.S bombardment and shelling of 140 B52 aircraft in turn, more than 200 tactical planes, 12 – 16 fighter planes and cruisers. Within 40 days and nights it had suffered 80,000 tons of bombs – as many as that in the World War II in African battlefield within a month. Sometimes the number of bombs dropped in Quang Tri a day was far more than that on the whole South battlefield in the years of 1968-1969.

Especially, on July 25, there were 5,000 shells fired at an area of 3 square km² of Quang Tri and its vicinity once suffered 20,000 shells of big size a day. The US aggressors used bombs and shells with their destructive capacity, to destroy Quang Tri, equivalent to 7 atomic bombs the they dropped onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Japan in 1945. It is, really, unbelievable that each inhabitant in this land had to suffer 7 tons of bombs averagely. Also, this has proved that ours is a heroic nation – for 81 days and nights, the whole Quang Tri old citadel had been shaking by U.S bombs and shells, and it was at the same time, the whole Vietnamese people turned towards their undaunted Quang Tri old citadel, following every step of our liberation armed forces. All were determined, side by side with Quang Tri to fight to their last breath. The Northern people had saved everything such as: ammunition, food and etc. to send to Quang Tri. Thousands and thousands of young men joined the army to go to the front. Many among those have been gone forever in this Quang Tri land.

Vinh Moc Tunnels :
Vinh Moc, in Quang Tri province, was where the first US bombs were dropped in North Vietnam.  In June 1965, after heavy bombardments, Vinh Moc villagers started digging shelters beneath their houses and then joined with the neighbors to create a web of tunnels.  Every household was entitled to 4 m². Households were connected to public facilities, such as meeting rooms, art performance room, and a clinic where 17 babies were born.