Son Tay Ancient Citadel

Son Tay Ancient Citadel (Vietnamese: Thành Sơn Tây／城山西) is a fortress in Son Tay town, Hanoi, Vietnam. It was first built in the third year of the Minh Mạng era (1822) and is a 200-year-old military citadel built of laterite, a common traditional material in Son Tay.

The moat surrounding Son Tay citadel is entirely revetted with laterite and is almost undamaged, with a total length of 1,800 metres and a width of 20 metres. Connecting it with the surrounding streets are four bridges leading to the four main gates, comprising the front gate (facing south), the rear gate (facing north) and the east and west main gates.

In 1994 Son Tay was recognised by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a national architectural and historical monument. Today this citadel stands in the centre of Son Tay town, Hanoi, as a historical and military architectural relic.

Machine-translated from “山西古城” on the Chinese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Son Tay Ancient Citadel ranks #5,566 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #7 of the 10 mapped in Vietnam. Founded 1822, it is older than 11% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 607 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,113 times in the last 60 days, more than 51% of the atlas. See how Vietnam compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in Chinese) ↗