Quang Tri was once an important citadel city, but little of its old glory remains. In the Easter Offensive of 1972, four divisions of North Vietnamese regulars, backed by tanks, artillery and rockets, poured across the DMZ into this province. They laid siege to QuangTri town, shelling it heavily before capturing it along with the rest of the province.
The south struck back: over the next four months the city was almost completely leveled bay South Vietnamese artillery and carpet bombing by US fighter- bombers and B-52s. The ARVN suffered 5000 casualties in rubble to rubble fighting to retake the city.
Today all that might interest a visitor are the remnants of the moat, ramparts and gates of the citadel, which the North and South fought bitterly over in 1972. It’s off Tran Hung Dao Street, 1.6 km north of Hwy 1A
Outside Quang Tri, along Hwy 1A towards Hue, is the skeleton of Long Hung church. It bears countless bullet holes and mortar damage from the 1972 bombardment, and is a common stop on DMZ tours