Citadel of the Ho Dynasty (World Cultural Heritage)

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty is located in the communes of Vinh Tien, Vinh Long, Vinh Quang , Vinh Yen, Vinh Phuc, Vinh Ninh, Vinh Khang and Vinh Thanh and Vinh Loc Town (Vinh Loc district), Thanh Hoa province. It is the ancient capital of the Vietnam from 1398 to 1407.

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty was built by Ho Quy Ly in 1397 who at that time was a prime minister under the Tran dynasty. When being completed, Ho Quy Ly forced the king Tran Thuan Tong to move from Thang Long capital (Hanoi) to Thanh Hoa. In February 1400 (Moon calendar), Ho Quy Ly took Tran’s throne and renamed the country Dai

South Gate: view from inside (SouthWest axis)

Ngu (1400-1407) and citadel of the Ho Dynasty officially became the capital. Citadel of the Ho Dynasty historically had some other names known as the An Ton, Tay Do, Tay Kinh, Tay Nhai, Tay Giai.

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty is considered as a single stone buildings remaining in Southeast Asia and is one of the few remaining in the world. On 27^th June 2011, in Paris (France), during the 35th meeting of the World Heritage Committee, UNESCO recognized the Ho as the world’s cultural heritage.

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty met two criteria specified in the World Heritage Convention in 2008. Those were the 2^nd criterion “expressing the importance of the exchange of human values ​​, over a period or within a cultural area of the world, on the developments in architecture or technology, sculpture, city planning or landscape design and the 4^th criterion “being the outstanding example of a type of building, an architectural or an engineering population or landscape illustration in one (or more) stage in human history”.

Citadel of Ho Dynasty East Gate

In the world heritage documents, Citadel of the Ho Dynasty is described as a magnificent work of techniques and constructive arts with large stones and a combination of traditionally unique construction in Vietnam, in the East Asia and Southeast Asia during the late 14th century and early 15th century. With the unique construction techniques, using sustainable materials, especially the large stone, Citadel of the Ho Dynasty has been very well preserved. This is one of the few citadels have not suffered strongly from the impact of urbanization, landscape and architectural scale are preserved almost intact both on-ground and in-ground in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty (World Cultural Heritage)