In the past, the citadel is situated in a large campus, bordering Hoang Dieu ward in the west, Nguyen Tri Phuong road in the east, Army Club in the south and Phan Dinh Phung street in the north, belonging to Ba Dinh district.
Hanoi old citadel
In the past, the citadel is situated in a large campus, bordering Hoang Dieu ward in the west, Nguyen Tri Phuong road in the east, Army Club in the south and Phan Dinh Phung street in the north, belonging to Ba Dinh district.
In 1010, King Ly Thai To transferred the capital from Hoa Lu to Thang Long, the citadel was built and enlarged in late dynasties. Thang Long citadel was planned in three circles. The forbidden city or dragon phoenix city in Ly - Tran dynasty is the royal palace in inmost.
In the middle, imperial city encircles crowded urban zone eastwards. The out most is La Thanh or Dai La Thanh. In 1805, the Nguyen dynasty built Hanoi citadel and retained the forbidden city for mandarin’s visit to North. Under French colonial time, the French destructed Hanoi citadel but retained this area to be army head quarters.
Four old architectural works remained after Hanoi citadel was destroyed, from the South to the North, are Doan Mon city gate, Kinh Thien palace, Hau Lau and Bac Mon city gate.
Doan Mon is the only building that is preserved perfectly, comprising a Chinese - style 2 - storey pavilion with 8 roofs and 5 doors. Above the main door, there is a line of "Doan Mon". Now, Doan Mon is maintained relatively intact.
Kinh Thien palace destructed in 1886 to build head quarters of French Artillery, now there is only stone corridor with two stone dragons in the middle. Two stone engraved handrail in the South and North are decorated as the same as above. Stair cases of Kinh Thien palace has 10 steps in the South and 7 steps in the North formed by big rock.
Hau Lau, or pavilion of princess, built with brick. The sub structure is in shape of box, the super structure is a three storey architecture work. The lower floor has three roofs, the upper has two roofs.
Bac Mon city gate is trapezoid - shaped with two triangular sides, the door is the vault - shape, built with brick and reinforced with rectangular stone at edges. The over head edge is decorated with lotus symbol. In North of the door, there are 8 stone steles with three Chinese letters "Chinh Bac Mon". There is also a stone board on the right engraved on April 25, 1852 with two cannon traces - signs of French aggression war to Tonkin.
Four above said vestiges are in small architectural scale but they prove to a political centre, capital of the country throughout nearly thousand years.
Flag tower
It is in area of Army’s Museum, Dien Bien Phu street, Dien Bien precinct, Ba Dinh district.
It was constructed in 1812 under the reign of King Gia Long. It is a pedestal with 3 stories, tower and spiral stair cases. The pedestal comprises three square boxes piling up from big to small. The tower is 20m high, hexagon - shaped with a pillar for flagging. At the top, you can see the whole surrounding area.
Flag tower is one of architectural works of citadel that is preserved completely.
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