Look up: this brick tower crowned by the Vietnamese flag is one of Hanoi's symbols, and one of the few pieces of the 19th-century citadel still standing.

1A Nguyễn watchtower

It was built in the early 19th century, during the reign of Gia Long, first emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. Sources give either 1805 or 1812. It was part of the new Vauban-style citadel the emperor had built, and it served as a lookout post: from the top you could survey the city and every approach to it.

It stands 33.4 metres high, over 41 with the flagpole. It rests on three square platforms that narrow as they rise, and inside a spiral staircase climbs to the top. Thirty-six flower-shaped windows and six fan-shaped ones bring light and air into the shaft.

2The tower that was spared

After the conquest, between 1894 and 1897, the French demolished almost the entire citadel to lay out streets and build barracks and offices. The tower survived because it was useful to them as a military post. The flag of the new republic has flown here since 1954, and for decades the tower stood within the grounds of the Military History Museum. Today it belongs to the Imperial Citadel complex.

Here the flag is not decoration: the tower was built to see and to be seen from afar.

3What to look for

  • The three stepped platforms supporting the tower.
  • The small flower-shaped windows dotted around the octagonal shaft.
  • The inscriptions over the doors of the second platform, such as «Nghênh Húc», "welcoming the dawn light", on the east side.

Documented

The tower was built in the early 19th century under Gia Long, is 33.4 metres tall and was not demolished by the French at the end of that century.

Sources and credits

Thăng Long – Hanoi Heritage Conservation Centre (hoangthanhthanglong.vn); Vietnamese Wikipedia, «Cột cờ Hà Nội»; William S. Logan, «Hanoi: Biography of a City» (2000).

Photos:

  • The brick Flag Tower of Hanoi with the Vietnamese flag on top: Richard Mortel, CC BY 2.0.

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