Nghe An Ancient Citadel

Direction: The two ways come there: from Quang Trung Street (or Truong Chinh Street) go over to Dao Tan Street; or heading to Dang Thai Than (Front Gate).

Nghe An Ancient Citadel

In the reign of Emperor Tu Duc, it was repaired; the rampart was higher 0.8m. The citadel had 6 sides with about 2,412m in perimeter, 4.42m in long and 420,000m2 in area.  Surrounding the citadel was a moat which was 28m wide, 3.2m deep and had lotus inside. According to "Dai Nam thuc luc chinh bien" book, when started to work, the court of Nguyen Dynasty already mobilized 1,000 soldiers in Thanh Hoa and 4,000 soldiers in Nghe An managed by  supervision of Chief Marshal Do Quy. In the reign of Emperor Tu Duc, when repaired, it need 8,599 boards of so stone from Dien Chau, laterite from Nam Dan and over 4,848kg lime, 155kg molasses with the expenditure was 3,698 quan (coin with square holes, money was used in the old time).

The citadel has three entrances. Tien (the front) was main entrance, used only for imperial carriages, tu tru (the four highest-ranking court officials), luc bo and tong doc (province chiefs). Tienta (the left) to the east, huu (the right) to the west. When passing each entrance,  had to pass a bridge. Each entrance had a strong entrance leaf. (the front) entrance faced to the south,

At the east of Hanh Cung (royal step-over place) was tong doc palace, the south was Bo chanh, An sat, Lanh binh and Doc hoc palaces, barrack and jail to the north. Later the west had Giam binh (Commanding officer of a provincial garrison) House of French.

Formerly, Vinh Ancient Citadel was equipped 65 cannons of which 47 canons stood  in 6 watches and rampart, others in Hanh Cung and tong doc palaces.

Nghe An Ancient Citadel was the place where many important historical events were taken place and witnessed. It was the place that French colonialists kept in a prison cell and torture communist fighters in the Xo Viet - Nghe Tinh Period (1930-1931).

Among province chiefs who took up an appointment in Nghe An Ancient Citadel, only Dao Tan (1845-1907) who was born in Binh Dinh, bequeathed by history and people nice impression. He was the chief of Nghe An twice (1893-1897 and 1900-1903).

Source: www.vietnam-tourism.com