Perhaps one of the grandest mansions of the Gilded age was Norodom Palace. Hi everyone, ken here,
welcome to this house. Today we set out to Vietnam to explore the Saigon Governor’s Palace.
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In 1857, Napoleon the third set out to conquer Vietnam.
The French military was met with heavy resistance, but by 1861, after 14 years of war,
the French had conquered Saigon along with 3 adjacent provinces.
In June of 1862, a peace treaty was formed which ceded the new territory of Cochinchina to France.
The French government, looking to impose its might, set out to do so by building a
palace to intimidate the inhabitants of Vietnam and instill confidence in the rule of France.
A design competition was held in 1865 to create a gubernatorial palace in Saigon.
Achille-Antoine Hermitte won first place in the design competition
and was aptly named the head of the architectural department in Cochinchina by the governor,
Admiral Pierre-Paul de la Grandiere. So on the 23rd of march 1868, Governor Grandiere
ceremoniously laid the blue granite cornerstone to commence the construction of the palace.
The palace was planned to be built in the Neo-Baroque style with a creamy yellow stucco
to compliment the granite block foundation which had been imported from France. Intricate carvings
and reliefs from white stones graced the arched windows. The symmetrical
façade stretched 260 feet wide with pavilions capping off the ends. Contained in the center
was a large dome concealed by a mansard roof. The palace sat in the center of 32 park like acres
with 8 roads branching off to the grounds. The intricate artisan work would continue for several
more years as no detail was left unattended. The total cost of the palace would come to
over 4 million 700 thousand francs, or the modern day equivalent of about 122 million dollars USD.
The interior of the palace was planned to house both the administration and the govenor’s private
residence with the administration on the first floor on the govenors home on the upper levels.
Entering the palace through the central pavilion, you would have walked across marble floors.
Beyond this was the reception hall with ballrooms branching off on either side. Natural
light flooded into this space allowing for the interior gardens to thrive in the marble halls.
Ornate entablatures and friezes could be found in the various rooms accompanied
by wood paneling and fine furnishings. The palace included rooms such as a dining room,
telegraph room, and council chambers, but no room was as magnificent as the ceremonial room.
A double staircase, clad in marble, extended from the end of the great hall towards the
rear of the palace, welcoming up to 800 guests to comfortably attend a ball in the ceremonial room.
In 1887, the Cochinchina territory changed hands to the Indo-Chinese Union.
The new governor thought the palace was too ostentatious and opted for a somewhat more
humble abode. Throughout the following years, the palace would only be used for ceremonial purposes.
By 1954, the French Government had been defeated and surrendered the palace to
the Vietnamese government who would use it as the new presidential palace.
On the 27th of February, 1962, there was a civilian uprising against the ruling class. 2
airplanes struck the palace completely demolishing the left wing. Being too expensive to repair,
the president ordered the rest of the palace to be torn down and a new one to be built in its place.
Thank you all for watching, I really hope that you enjoyed this video. Which part of this palace
was your favorite, let me know in the comments section! As always, I’d like to take a moment
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