SON TAY ANCIENT CITADEL

The citadel is also known as "Son Tay citadel", located at the center of Son Tay Town, Hanoi. The main citadel was built in 1822, the main citadel was built in 1849 during the reign of King Minh Menh.

According to Văn khắc Hán Nôm Việt Nam, in the citadel there was a stele erected in the year of the Ox, the 10th year of Khai Dinh (1925). There were 13 officials of that time who contributed to the renovation of Son Tay citadel such as: Son Tay province chief Hoang Thuy Chi, county chief Nguyen Dinh Hoe...

In the citadel, the important buildings are built symmetrically on the North - South central axis. The book Sơn Tây tỉnh địa chí by Pham Xuan Do, written in 1941, recorded quite detailed. The section about citadels (Son Tay citadel) wrote:

“Son Tay Citadel was quadrilateral, 5 meters high, with a circumference of 1,304 meters long. Each face was in the middle of the area, where there was a gateway, the walls were in a semicircular shape. East and West gates were closed, only the front door (the South) looked out to Ba Vi street, the back door looked toward Courbet street, ie Hau An street.

Around the citadel, there were a trench of 3 meters deep, 20 meters wide and 1,795 meters long, on the left side of the back door - where the Palace of the Chief of Mission looked to - with lotus, in summer, the lotus leaves bloomed all over the water, like a green raft, light red flowers. At the breezes, the fragrance of the lotus was as cool as the fragrance of an ancient past...

In the old days, there were palaces of mandarins and food warehouse in the citadel. Now (1941) the citadel is to the west, the middle is Vong Cung, Vo Mieu and Thuy Thap. To the east are the dungeons, the Palace of Du than (?) And the school.

Above the front door is a Watch tower of 18 meters high, made in 1822. On July 1, 1940, the province placed an electric horn on the Watch tower with 6 speakers to spread all over the province. Every day they alarmed the hour of Horse to the people.

The two sides of the Watch tower had 2 large wells, bricks were built around, clear water, now (1941) for landscaping. In the past, there were 4 wells of 4 mandarins: Tong doc (province chief), An sat (provincial judge), Doc hoc (Provincial education officer) and De doc (provincial commander). After not being used anymore, two of them were removed.

The province had tried several times to fill up the ditch, break the walls, one was not to confine water, and the other was to expand the city. It was not until 1902, the generals Bichot and Cornat asked to preserve this place as a ancient relic of the ancient of Doai province, the government could definitely retain it”.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Son Tay citadel together with Bac Ninh citadel, Hai Duong citadel and Nam Dinh citadel were 4 beautiful citadels of Tonkin.

Son Tay ancient citadel has embankment made of red clay (hilly land), outside the deep ditch now becomes a paddy field around Van Mieu hill. Beside, there is the "Ma Co" mound - where there is a flagpole, "Nghien But" mound is also called Mo Phuong mound - the place for preparing administrative documents. The western gate is the main entrance and exit of the citadel, the next is Mui Giao mound - the place where the guard station is located to control people entering and leaving the citadel. In the North East (Van Mieu) is “Trang Trong” mound, “Nui Chieng” (now Catholic cemetery) - where the command or news announcements are issued when there is an urgent order, nearby Kho mound - the Military food storage, "Tau Tuong" mound - where there are stables to keep elephants and horses on the banks of Tich River.

Son Tay ancient citadel was built of beestone, square, about 400m long, 5m high, built in the style of Vauban - French castle in the late seventeenth century. The walls are quadrilateral, trapezoidal cross-section, the foot of the walls was 6m wide, the side was 4m wide, designed with many loopholes above. Each side of the wall, in the middle, is made in arch style to go outside. The citadel has four main gates: the North is the back gate, above the framed door surrounding the Chinese characters (the door is now covered by tree roots); the south is the front gate (now sealed by bricks); the main gate of the east and the west is kept intact. On each gate, there is a watch tower (gazebo), there is Duong Ma Thanh outside (also called fish gills) and only open a small exit on the right, made of earthy material without a roof (gills are no longer available).

Western gate

Around the citadel, the ditch is 3m deep, 20m wide and circumference of 2,000m for defense. On the outside, La Thanh is covered with 3.5m high made of soil, pentagon - 5 sides, outside is covered with bamboo. The outer citadel also opens 4 gates in 4 directions: East-West-South-North.

In the city, the construction works are built symmetrically on the central axis, north-south direction. In the middle of the Palace is Dien kinh thien (Watch tower), looking towards the South. In front of the palace, there is a large tiled yard, outside the gate, there is a screen with the words Long Vân khánh hội”, followed by Doan Mon gate built in three-door gate with a three walkways.

Outside is the flagpole (flag tower) built on a truncated pedestal, two levels of beestone, about 20m high, used as a place to hang flags or guard (watchtower). Beside, next to the flagpole is Vo Mieu - the place to worship the generals and officers who sacrificed while fighting to protect the citadel. In 4 corners of the citadel, there used to be 4 large square wells, built in three-steps staircase way made of beestone, about 6 m deep. Right next to it is the mansion and the lawcourt.

To the East of the Dien kinh thien is a dungeon (prison). Food storage and female camp. The northern gate of La Thanh goes to the Red River, the East to Phu Sa village to Hanoi, the West to Hung Hoa, the South to Tich river. Especially on the Red River, at the junction of two dykes at the gateway of the outer citadel, on Dong Quang gate, there is a strong alluvial fortress with three guns in three sides. On this fortress, there are a fortification and crowded traffic system. Thus, Son Tay Citadel has a very dangerous strategic position.

Archaeological excavation of the wall section

          When the French invaded Tonkin, attacked Phu Sa fortress and mobilized forces to attack the ancient citadel of Son Tay. After 50 days, they occupied the citadel. According to some documents, the French army took advantage of the dark night, our troops were unwary, sent two henchmen, Luong and Dat, to sneak into the citadel to lower our flags and hang the enemy flags. Early in the morning, our troops saw the loss of the flag, thought that the citadel was lost, so they were bewildered and withdrew from the citadel to Trung Ha.

After occupying Son Tay, the French colonialists turned this place into a garrison. They filled the two gates in the east and the west, keeping the two main gates to the south and the north; 2 more arch shaped ditches were built and made of beestone and bricks, demolished fish gills outside the gates and made way into and out of the Citadel. They also abandoned a number of mansions, filled two wells, the north was turned into a training ground for soldiers (later, one side became the town's stadium), they built more houses and workplaces for commanding officer and deputy commanding officer (French), built a grave area near the main gate of the West; built a flower garden, in the middle, there is a marble high tower with a black bronze statue in the middle in the area behind Dien kinh thien, overlooking the back gate. (After the Japanese coup d'etat, the people of Son Tay Town entered the city, pulled the statue and destroyed this flower garden.).

Dien kinh thien and Flag tower after renovations

          The August Revolution was successful, the ancient citadel of Son Tay became the barracks of the Vietnam People's Army. In December 1946, President Ho Chi Minh paid a working visit to Son Tay Town. At the location of the North gate (back gate), Uncle Ho spoke intimately with the government and the people. On April 25, 1946, after attending the opening of the first intake of Tran Quoc Tuan School, President Ho Chi Minh turned into the old citadel and talked to the people to unite and maintain national independence, increase production, protect dykes, prevent floods, go to schools and support Southern resistance.

In December 1946, following the policy of "local resistance", Son Tay government and people demolished part of the walls, the Watch tower (the body of the flagpole and watch tower), Dien kinh thien and the prison. Over time, some architectural items of the ancient Son Tay citadel were eroded and degraded. In 2001, Son Tay ancient citadel was restored and embellished in several items: the fortress, the well, the gates, the ditch, especially Dien Kinh Thien (Watch tower).

Son Tay Citadel is a big and beautiful citadel but experiencing ups and downs of history, now no longer intact as before. Right from the 70s of the twentieth century, many photographs of Son Tay taken by the French and the ancient Far Eastern Institute were collected. In the late 80s of the twentieth century, there were 3 drawings: the ground, the main hall and the head of Vong Cung.

Son Tay Citadel is a unique historical site that has been ranked nationally by the Ministry of Culture and Information under Decision No. 2754-QD/BT on October 15, 1994.

 On February 16, 2009, Hanoi People's Committee decided to renovate and embellish Son Tay Ancient Cultural Historical Site in service of the 1000th Thang Long-Hanoi Anniversary Ceremony, in order to preserve a valuable historical and cultural relic for visitors. Son Tay Citadel has been restored to a number of main items: Dien kinh thien, Vong Cung, Ky Dai, Doan Mon, 100m of the wall...

At present, Son Tay ancient citadel is open to welcome guests. This is a cultural destination with many significance, helping visitors learn about an important ancient citadel of Xu Doai.