Story
The story of Imperial City of Hue
In June 1802, after more than a century of division, Nguyen Phuc Anh took the throne of a unified Vietnam as Emperor Gia Long, and he wanted a capital to match. He modelled his palace on the Forbidden City in Beijing and consulted geomancers to choose the site. Work on the citadel began in 1803 and on the palace in 1804. But notice one difference: Beijing's palace faces true south, while this one turns southeast toward the Perfume River, and the emperor's residence sits off-centre, nearer the water.
Within a second ring of tall walls and a moat lay courtyards, gardens, pavilions and palaces for the imperial family, along with shrines and offices for mandarins. Enlarged to its present scale in 1833, it remained the seat of power until the French protectorate of the 1880s. On 30 August 1945 Emperor Bao Dai abdicated here.
The complex was heavily damaged during the Indochina Wars, and since 1993 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site under restoration.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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