Hue: A Guide to the Citadel and Tombs of Vietnam’s Last Emperors
From 1802 to 1945 the Nguyen emperors ruled Vietnam from a walled city on the Perfume River and built their tombs in the hills upstream. War destroyed most of the palace. What remains, and what has been rebuilt, fills two days.
Hue lies on the Perfume River in the narrow centre of Vietnam. In 1802 Gia Long, the first emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, unified the country and made it his capital. It remained the seat of the court until 1945, when the last emperor abdicated. UNESCO listed the Complex of Hue Monuments in 1993, the first World Heritage site in Vietnam. The listing covers the citadel, the imperial city inside it and the tombs of the emperors in the countryside.
Three enclosures
The capital was planned as a set of walls within walls, sited by geomancers with the river in front and a low hill as a screen. Work began in 1803 and was completed in 1832 under the second emperor, Minh Mang.
The outer enclosure is the Citadel, a fortress about ten kilometres in circumference with ten gates, ramparts and a moat. Ordinary streets and houses still fill most of it. On its southern face stands the Flag Tower, first built in 1807, and nearby are nine bronze cannons cast in 1803 and 1804, named after the four seasons and the five elements.
Within the Citadel is the Imperial City, a walled rectangle with a perimeter of about two and a half kilometres, where the business of the court was done. Within that again was the Purple Forbidden City, the private quarters of the emperor and his household.
What survives
The Imperial City once had about 160 buildings. In February 1947, during fighting between the Viet Minh and French forces, the palace was burned. In early 1968 the Citadel was a battlefield for weeks during the Tet offensive. By the end only about ten major structures were standing. The Purple Forbidden City was almost entirely lost, and for decades it was a field of foundations.
The buildings that survived are the best of the visit. The Meridian Gate, built in 1833, is the main entrance, a massive stone base with a pavilion on top from which the emperor reviewed his troops. Beyond it, across a lotus pond, is the Thai Hoa throne hall, first built in 1805 and moved to its present position in 1833, where all thirteen Nguyen emperors were enthroned. To the south-west is the The Mieu temple, dedicated to the emperors, with nine bronze urns cast in 1836 and set in its courtyard the following year. Each urn is engraved with seventeen images of the country: rivers, mountains, animals and plants. The Dien Tho residence of the queen mothers, begun in 1804, gives the clearest idea of how the court lived.
Restoration has been under way since the 1990s and continues. Pavilions, galleries and gates have been rebuilt one by one, and the royal theatre, built in the 1820s, stages performances of court music. Visitors should expect a site that is part monument, part garden and part building works.
The tombs
Seven emperors have tombs in the hills south of the city, and three are worth a day together. Each was designed in the emperor’s lifetime, and each reflects its owner.
Minh Mang. The tomb of the second emperor is the most formal: courts, gates and pavilions arranged on a single long axis between lakes and pines, on the west bank of the river.
Tu Duc. The fourth emperor reigned from 1848 to 1883, longer than any other Nguyen ruler. His tomb, built between 1864 and 1867, was also his retreat. He lived there for long periods, boating on its lake and writing poetry in a pavilion over the water. The labour and taxes it required provoked a failed coup in 1866. The stone tablet that carries his own account of his reign is the largest in Vietnam. He was buried elsewhere, in a place kept secret.
Khai Dinh. The tomb of the twelfth emperor, who reigned from 1916 to 1925, took eleven years to build and was finished in 1931. It is made of concrete on a steep hillside, in a mixture of Vietnamese and European styles, and its inner hall is covered from floor to ceiling in mosaics of broken porcelain and glass. It is the smallest of the three and the most surprising.
For travellers
Allow a full morning for the Imperial City and start at opening time, before the heat and the tour groups. The tombs lie several kilometres out of town and need a car or a bicycle. Minh Mang’s can also be reached by boat on the Perfume River, with a stop at the Thien Mu pagoda and its seven-tiered tower. Our account of the visit suggests an order.
The best months are February to late April. June and July are very hot, and from about August to January there is heavy rain and a risk of flooding. Hue has an airport at Phu Bai, half an hour from the centre, and is on the main north-south railway. From Da Nang the road over the Hai Van pass takes about two hours.
Hue is also known for its food, which descends from the kitchens of the court: bun bo Hue, a beef noodle soup, and small steamed and fried rice cakes. Most travellers combine the city with Hoi An, to the south, where Four Seasons The Nam Hai took the garden houses of Hue as the model for its villas. The SJourney train stops at Hue on its way between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
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