Northern Gate Relic (Vietnamese: di tích Cửa Bắc) is the only remaining city gate of Hanoi, which has a tragic history marked by two battles in which the French colonialists prevailed. Currently, the North Gate has become a must-see tourist attraction and historical relic in Hanoi.
History and architecture of the North Gate
The Northern Gate Relic in Hanoi was built by the Nguyen Dynasty in 1805 on the foundations of a gate from the Le Dynasty, in the style of a gazebo, with an upper floor and a lower citadel, measuring 8.71m high, 17.08m wide, and with walls 2.48m thick.
The floor is built on a wooden frame, the roof is tiled, and there are doors in four directions. Rainwater on the gazebo is drained downward through two stone gutters.
The citadel was built very solidly with stone and brick; the foot of the embankment was made of stone, and the citadel gate was also arched with bricks arranged one brick horizontally and one brick vertically. The bricks for construction have dimensions of 35.5cm x 10cm x 12cm. Millet stones range in size from 38 to 86cm long.
The edge of the door has a rectangular stone embankment, and the upper border is a stone band decorated with lotus flowers. The two restored wooden city gates have a total area of 24m², weigh about 16 tons, and run on bronze wheels weighing about 80kg. Outside, above the city gate, there are three Chinese characters carved in stone: “Main Northern Gate”, and the border is decorated with flower strings.
Although Northern Gate was built by the Nguyen Dynasty, at its foot lie layers upon layers of citadel relics from previous dynasties, affirming the continuity of the Imperial Citadel’s thousand-year history.
In 1998, in the Northern Gate area, archaeologists found numerous architectural traces at depths of 1.66m and 2.2m, including sections of city walls built of stone and brick from the Le Dynasty.
Cultural Relics
Today, the North Gate has become an interesting tourist destination for domestic and foreign tourists. Visitors can easily see that outside the Northern Gate, there are still two traces of French cannonballs when they used warships to attack the Hanoi citadel from the banks of the Red River in 1882.
Inside Northern Gate is a display area about two General Governors of Vietnam: Nguyen Tri Phuong and Hoang Dieu – heroes who made great contributions to the task of protecting Hanoi citadel in the second half of the 19th century. Their statues are made of bronze and placed on the wooden-framed floor.
The Northern Gate of Hanoi Citadel is currently located in the Thang Long Imperial Citadel complex. Tourists who want to go up to the gazebo can buy tickets to visit the Imperial Citadel at the gate on Hoang Dieu Street, priced at 30,000 VND per trip. This area is open every day of the week, except Monday, from 8:00 a.m. to 17:00 p.m
Source: collected by An
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