Life in Vietnam

Huế royal princess’ palace reopens after renovation

An Hiên Garden House has a small pond filled with water lilies.

HUẾ — The 19th century An Hiên Garden House built on the bank of the Hương (Perfume) River for a Nguyễn Dynasty princess in the former imperial city of Huế has reopened its doors to the public after closing for restoration.

Spread over an area of nearly 6,500sq.m, it has the typical graceful architecture of Huế garden houses which were strongly influenced by feng-shui and aesthetics.

Its entrance is an arched gate, which leads to a long walkway through the garden. A small pond filled with water lilies is between the ancient house and a windscreen [a brick wall designed to keep out the wind as well as bad spirits].

The 135sq.m ancient house in the centre of the garden is not only an excellent example of a traditional house but also has architecture that reflects the distinguished characteristics of Huế under the Nguyễn Dynasty.

The house contains many royal antiques, including two lacquered boards featuring parallel sentences awarded by Việt Nam’s last emperor Bảo Đại in 1937.

The garden house also has a French-style building with a large library featuring books in various languages such as Vietnamese, French, English, Russian, and Japanese.

An Hiên Garden House is also an ecological space with a four-season garden with many centuries-old trees, including various kinds of fruit trees and rare plants from different regions of Việt Nam.

At the end of the 19th century, the garden house was built as a palace for a princess. It was then owned by some other upper class people and in 2018 it came into the possession of the Silk Path Hotel Company Limited.