Saigon Central Post Office

In front of you is the Bưu điện Trung tâm Sài Gòn, the Saigon Central Post Office. More than a century after it opened, it is still a working post office.

1A building that is not by Eiffel

It was built between 1886 and 1891, when the telegraph linked Saigon to the rest of the French empire. People often repeat that Gustave Eiffel designed it, but its architect was Alfred Foulhoux, chief architect of the colony. A French architecture journal of September 1891 praised its “most artistic façade” and gave the credit to Foulhoux. The great hall inside, with its vault held up by iron columns, recalls a railway station of the period.

2Maps, scientists and a letter writer

Inside are two large maps painted in 1892: one of the telegraph lines of southern Vietnam and Cambodia, the other of Saigon and its surroundings. On the façade, the names of scientists such as Morse, Ampère, Volta, Ohm and Faraday honour the people who made modern communications possible. For decades Dương Văn Ngộ worked here, known as the country's last public letter writer, who wrote and translated letters for anyone who needed them; he retired in 2021.

3What to look for

• The clock at the centre of the façade.
• The names of the scientists spread across the façade.
• The book street alongside: a pedestrian street of bookshops opened in 2016.