Thai Hoa Palace is one of the most important constructions in Hue Imperial City, constructed in 1805. It’s extremely unique architectural and built under the Nguyen Dynasty. It used to be a venue for important events, meetings or big parties.
Apart from the King and members of the Royal family, only the ministers, mandarins can come here. It deserves a precious monuments in terms of historical, cultural and art values. And especially, it was the working place of King with Mandarin each morning and was the coronation place of thirteen Kings of the Nguyen Dynasty from Gia Long to Bao Dai.
This palace was considered the center of the country during the feudalism
How Thai Hoa Palace is unique?
How Thai Hoa Palace is unique?
From its name “Thai Hoa” was given to this project also has a lot of profound meanings. The word “Thai” means big and big, the word “Hoa” means harmony. The harmony is between erection and need, between Yin and Yang, between people and people, etc. When everything is in harmony, it means all harmony from the sky are well. It seems that this is the desire of the Nguyen kings to bring a prosperous and happy life to all people as well as to make the kingdom more prosperous and strong.
Thai Hoa Palace was used to celebrate significant court rituals such as anniversaries and coronations. This palace was also an important venue to welcome ambassadors of other countries or celebrate diplomatic rituals.
Especially, most significant events of the royal family, royal dynasty and the country were originated from this palace.
Passing more than 200 years, Thai Hoa Palace witnessed numerous events, both glory and failure of the country during 13 reign of the Nguyen Dynasty. It was from Gia Long King who was the founder of the dynasty to Bao Dai the last king.
It is a worth a visit Thai Hoa Palace
The most impressive once you get inside is the main interior the Palace is the golden throne and the ceiling with delicately carved. This throne was only for the emperors sat and received the salutations or listened to the reports of court mandarins. The most striking features of the Palace are the red lacquered wooden columns with emblem of golden dragon.
And right in front of Thai Hoa Palace is a huge courtyard with stone tablets on the both right and left hand side. These tablets were with the aim to mark the position of the mandarins according to their ranks. While the civil mandarins were on the left, the military mandarins were on the right.
1. History
This palace was built on February 21, 1805 and completed after eight months of construction. The construction site of the palace was about 45 meters northwest of the present location at original. However, King Minh Mang wanted to change and built a new architectural system of the inner works in 1833. And then he moved the Palace to the South and rebuilt much larger and more massive scale. After many years later, this work had been restored and repaired many times. But most of the architecture is still intact to this day.
2. The architecture
The special of Thai Hoa Palace probably lies in the “double house” architecture. Also known as the “double-wage coincidence”, “the same pattern of the snail” (the house is connected, the roof overlaps the roof). This palace was built on an area up to 1,360 sqm. The Palace was built about one meter higher than the adjoining court, 2.35 meters above the ground.
The front of Thai Hoa Palace was built in the style of seven rooms with two wings. Followed by the main hall, a bit smaller with five compartments and two wings. These two buildings are connected by the roof of the crab shell, also known as the excess roof.
Stay in front of the Palace, you will see a large board hanging in the middle. It was engraved with three golden words “Thai Hoa Dien” along with a small line of words recording the year of construction (1805), the year of construction. again (1883), and the year of overhaul (1923). To the inside of the ribs of Thai Hoa completely made from ironwood. The system of 80 support pillars is decorated with dragon shapes winding around.
Go to the innermost is the main hall where the throne of the king is placed on three floors of wooden pedestals. Especially, the above is the part of the crown with iridescent pentagram with nine decorated dragon figures. Everything here is inlaid with gold – the special in Royal Palace of Nguyen Dynasty.
Furthermore, the wooden part in the front house is also painted and carved exquisitely. The upper ceiling is hung with many large lanterns, which are decorated with stylized images and poems in the “best competition” style.
How architecture in Thai Hoa palace is special?
The roof is divided into three floors designed in a coincidental style or a pile of matches. All of which are roofed with royal tile (a type of tube tile is coated with gold enamel). In the middle of the roof floors is a match-neck strip divided into small boxes and drawers and also very meticulously decorated with stylized poets or drawings. And the top part of the roof is covered in the shape of a dragon and an anise, and in the middle is a wine shape made of Phap Lam.
In front of the Thai Hoa Palace is the courtyard. It’s also known as Long Tri, Bai Dinh, where the mandarins gather and stand in line and face to the Palace to perform the ceremony. Inside, The King was on the throne and surrounded by the Prince and the four great four-pronged mandarins at the head of the court officials
The image of Thai Hoa Palace is solemn and large, seeing a typical architectural work still in the ancient land. Along with many other typical works of the Nguyen Dynasty, Dien Thai Hoa has also been recognized by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site.
Visiting Thai Hoa Palace you can see its original architecture which remains passing through the time and war.
It’s great for:
People love to discover history, culture and architecture as well as photographer
Quick tips:
- Time to visit: All year round visiting
- Time opening from 8:00am to 6:00pm
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