CONSERVING THE ROYAL CITY OF THANG LONG: IMPROVING VALUE FOR CREATIVE CITY
Thang Long Royal Palace Museum – the name contains the purpose of highlighting the global value of the heritage.
Hanoi will allocate 798 billion VND to implement the conservation project of the archaeological area at 18 Hoang Dieu Street; 136 billion VND to implement the project of the display house of the Thang Long Royal Palace in the Central Monuments of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long – Hanoi is good news not only for a heritage site. These projects are in the implementation plan for the period of 2021 – 2025, when completed, they will create a new step in the conservation of the heritage of the thousand-year-old city, the creative city.
From the in-house museum
Thang Long Royal Palace Museum – the name contains the purpose of highlighting the global value of the heritage. Because, thousands of relics have been collected during the archaeological excavations of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long over the past decades, but in reality, they have not been able to bring into full play their value. Displayed in the relic at the ancient citadel at 9 Hoang Dieu, a part of the relics displayed in the basement of the National Assembly house from the 18 Hoang Dieu archeology only introduced a small part of the treasures of the Imperial Citadel. Therefore, the Imperial Citadel heritage area needs a worthy Royal Palace museum.
Thang Long Imperial Citadel relic. Photo: Pham Hung
“We need better visualizations of the purple attic, the magnificent palace described in history books. This is what exhibitors should do. That is also the reason why we need more exhibits at the Royal Palace Museum,” said Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoc – Vice President of the Vietnam Historical Science Association. According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Mai Hung – Vice President of the Vietnam Historical Science Association: “Thang Long Imperial Palace Museum will create a tourist product that attracts domestic and international visitors”.
The Royal Palace Museum proposed to be built at building No. 1 Hoang Dieu, located within the ancient citadel in the northwest corner, was handed over to Hanoi by the Ministry of Defense. This is a French colonial building, built in 1906, which was originally the Department of Warfare of the French and is still known as Vaxuco. This building has a very large area (about 2,000m2), the facade overlooking Hoang Dieu Street is up to 70m long, has classical architecture, featured with a chimney system, stairs and large slate roof. so it is very convenient to renovate as a museum.
According to information from Thang Long – Hanoi Heritage Conservation Center, after receiving the consent of the authorities, the restoration and renovation of the Vaxuco building has been carried out, basically about 90% complete. expected item. In the coming time, the center will focus on building activities and displays, so that Thang Long Royal Palace Museum can open on October 10, 2024. As said by Mr. Nguyen Thanh Quang – Director Thang Long Heritage Conservation Center – Hanoi, this will be a museum with modern displays, applying new technologies and is expected to become a highlight serving visitors to the Imperial Citadel.
Go to the open-air archeology museum
In the space symmetrical to the Hanoi Citadel through Hoang Dieu Street, the archaeological relic site at 18 Hoang Dieu is also planned to invest in several major items, including an outdoor archeological museum.
In fact, the archaeological site of 18 Hoang Dieu was discovered in 2002 and played a particularly important role in helping the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long receive the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage title eight years later. However, up to now, this area has not been properly exploited, although in 2012, the Prime Minister decided to approve the master plan of this relic site, which includes many items such as display areas, preserving artifacts on site.
According to the latest report in the midterm review program for the implementation of Program No. 03-CTr/TU of the City Party Committee on “urban embellishment, urban development and urban economy in the period of 2021 – 2025” in 2022 , orientations and tasks in 2023, the project of Conservation of Archaeological Area 18 Hoang Dieu has been approved by the Hanoi People’s Council for implementation, allocating VND 798 billion of capital. It is expected that the Hoang Dieu Archaeological Exhibition Museum will be completed before 2025.
At the conference in mid-April 2023, within the framework of cooperation between the Hanoi People’s Committee in coordination with Toulouse City Hall and the French Development Agency, architect Jean Francois Milou (France) – who has a lot of practical experience Currently, projects in the Asian region have shown that the archaeological site of 18 Hoang Dieu is a typical site of Hanoi in the past and future. Due to the very strict planning requirements of this area, this architect thinks that it can only be built into a park, dedicated to the archaeological site of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.
This park will be visible from the side of the Parliament Building. The image of two buildings next to each other symbolizes the relationship between Hanoi today and Hanoi in the past. This is a highly symbolic message. At the same time, the image of the park is designed to spread horizontally of the park without affecting the image of the National Assembly building.
“What we see in this project, is the opportunity to create one of the most beautiful parks in Hanoi, and to bring to this beautiful park grounds the scientific interpretation of what happened in Thang Long. Long – Hanoi in the past”, emphasized architect Jean Francois Milou.
One of the most important elements of this garden is, of course, the vast underground archeology museum with direct access to the archaeological pits. The Archaeological Museum will bring a deeper message to visitors who want to learn more about what happened at this archaeological site, as well as with Thang Long – Hanoi in the past.
At the Thang Long Imperial Citadel, there is no separate display area to introduce the values of the palace as well as military history, a fact that has happened for many years. Therefore, nearly 1,000 billion VND invested in 2 museums is necessary, because these projects are being sent to tell the valuable story of Thang Long Hanoi by unique display forms.
“With the plan to preserve the archaeological site of 18 Hoang Dieu, I propose to build an on-site museum with the theme of Thang Long Palace vestiges. The best model is French learning in Ferigeux, with its beautiful and sustainable design – one of the best of all the existing on-site museums in the world.
Restoration of Kinh Thien main hall
Along with that, there are additional solutions to effectively promote the value of the heritage site such as: researching to restore the space of Kinh Thien Main Hall, studying and building the Thang Long Royal Palace Museum, researching and promoting the intangible cultural heritage value of Thang Long Imperial Palace.” – Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tong Trung Tin, Chairman of Vietnam Archaeological Association.
Thanh Bao