National Museum of Vietnamese History
Encyclopedia
Hoan Kiem
Hoàn Kiếm is an urban district of Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, named after the scenic Hoan Kiem Lake.Hoan Kiem district is the downtown and commercial centre of Hanoi...
district of Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
History
The building used to be the museum of the Far East Research Institute under French colonial ruleFrench Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
(École française d'Extrême-Orient
École française d'Extrême-Orient
The École française d'Extrême-Orient is a French institute dedicated to the study of Asian societies. Translated into English, it approximately means the French School of the Far East. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in what was then French Indochina. After independence, its...
EFEO).
Today, it is a museum showcasing Vietnam's history with very large displays covering every period. It is housed in a colonial French building which was completed in 1932. The building, designed by the architect Ernest Hébrard
Ernest Hebrard
Ernest Hébrard was a French architect, archaeologist and urban planner who completed major projects in Greece, Morocco, and French Indochina. He is mostly renowned for his urban plan for the redevelopment of the center of Thessaloniki in Greece after its Great Fire of 1917.The majority of...
, is considered a successful blend of French colonial and traditional Vietnamese architecture, called Indochina architecture. Hebrard created double walls and balconies for a natural ventilation system and protection from sunshine.