Imperial City of Hue

The Imperial City or Imperial Palace (Vietnamese: Hoàng thành; chữ Hán: 皇城) also known as Đại Nội (大內), is a royal enclosure within the walled city (Vietnamese: Kinh thành; chữ Hán: 京城) of Huế, the former imperial capital of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty. It contains the palaces that housed the imperial family, as well as shrines, gardens, and offices for mandarins. Constructed in 1804 under Emperor Gia Long as a new capital and later re-modelled and enlarged to its current scale in 1833, it mostly served as a ceremonial function and imperial residence during the French colonial period. After the end of the monarchy in 1945, it suffered heavy damage and neglect during the Indochina Wars through the 1980s. The Imperial City was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 as part of the Complex of Huế Monuments and is undergoing restoration.

Text adapted from “Imperial City of Huế” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Imperial City of Hue ranks #407 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #2 of the 10 mapped in Vietnam. Founded 1833, it is older than 11% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 562 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 19,586 times in the last 60 days, more than 97% of the atlas. See how Vietnam compares in the castle statistics.

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