The War Remnants Museum is currently located in the land area between Vo Van Tan and Le Quy Don streets, located at No. 28 Vo Van Tan, Ward 6, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City.
Few people know that this land is a place where Prince Nguyen Phuc Dam (ie King Thanh To, Minh Mang reign's year) was born. According to Geography of Unified Dai Nam, after ascending the throne, King Minh Mang ordered the establishment of a pagoda in this land to mark the vestige of the place where he was born, considered as a good land. The King said, "In the Year of the Pig (1791), I was born here. lí was the place with a talented person, so a pagoda is buiïlt to celebrate the great blessing. " In the Chronicle of Greater Vietnam, Minh Mang reigns 13th year (1832), it was written: “The king issued a royal ordinance:” Lan Tan Loc was on the right hand side of Gia Dinh citadel. In the past, my Queen mother once followed Thế Tổ Cao Hoàng đế to go to the South. It is really suitable with the good omen “Rainbow floats along the flower wharf”, regarding the prosperous precious land, the vestige should be kept permanently to encourage the descendant øenerations. Thereby, a pagoda should be built right there, called Khai Tuong pagoda to record great goodness, proving the place of long-term prosperity ". Then the King took 300 silver tael from the 'Treasury and handed over to the local mandarins, under the prescribed method of the Ministry of Construction, to hire the construction workers to build the pagoda.
Khai Tuong pagoda (Photo: Emile Gsell)
Because the budget was covered by the national treasury, the construction work was quickly completed and the pagoda received the official title of Quoc An Khai Tuong Pagoda. However, the pagoda, along with the fate of the Vietnam nation, fell into the hands of the French colonialist.
On December 18, 1859, Naval Major General Rigault De Genouilly commanded the Franco-Spanish coalition to conquer Gia Dinh citadel.
King Tu Duc sent Imperial Duty Envoy Nguyen Trí Phuong to rebuild Chí Hoa post (known as Ky Hoa in record of France) to resist. The French army immediately occupied a number of pagodas and temples in Quy cifadel suburb to make a “defense line” (lignes des pagodes), including Sac Tu Tu An pagoda, Quoc An Khai Tuong, Sac Tu Kim Chuong
Because of ifs proximity to Gia Dinh citadel, An Khai Tuong pagoda was occupied by the French army as a stronghold, and the French Marine Captain named Barbé accepted the mission of leading the troops to capture. Barbé brought the Buddha statue out of the yard and forced the monks to leave the pagoda. From then on, Khai Tuong pagoda was called Khai Tuong post or Barbé post (the name of the captain ofthe post).
On December 7, 1860 night, Truong Dinh 's insurgent army ¡in Go Cong went to Gia Dinh to ambush and kill Barbé outside Khai Tuong post. Also during this period, King Tu Duc placed a stone stele recording the merit of Pham Quoc Cong (Pham Dang Hung) - grandfather of King Tu Duc - from Hue imperial citadel, is taken to Go Cong, but when he arrived in Vung Tau, France discovered and confiscated. The FErench army erased all Chinese characters from the stele and carved on it with French characters to make a tomb for Captain Barbé in the Western holy land (Le Van Tam Park today). This stele has been currently brought to the Royal 'Tombin Go Cong, Tien Giang.
War Remnants Museum
In 1869, the Barbé Post, i.e the remaining frame of Khai Tuong pagoda, was destroyed to build the buildings of the colonial system.
According to the writer named Son Nam in The old Ben Nghe, “later, the pagoda campus became a male school to train teachers. In 1880, the pagoda was dismantled, the school moved to a new establishment named Lazuli school (Chasseloup Laubat) completely built around 1877”. France took Barbé to name this road, now Le Quy Don because the road is on the side of Khai Tuong pagoda that the French called Barbé pagoda and Barbé post.
The Buddha statue of Khai Tuong pagoda was taken back and stored in the Governor-General residence's warehouse, then handed over to the Indo-Chinese Archeology Association. Currently, the statue is on display at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History.
Sometime later, on the ground of this abandoned pagoda, FErance built a mansion for officials in the ruling apparafus.
During the time when President Ngo Dinh Diem was in power, this place was used as the University of Medicine and Pharmacy. According to Vuong Hong Sen in Saigon in the past, “the ground of Khai Tuong pagoda, as clearly traced, was in the land of the current University of Medicine and Pharmacy, No. 28 Tran Quy Cap Street, on the land with the number of bong do kim thoi 1, 8. 9, - section B 2è feuille, ville de Saigon. The position of the pagoda's base is in the entrance of the kitchen of the old building of the Grand Master Mathieu'”.
After President Ngo Dinh Diems regime was overthrown, the generals sent military advisers to occupy.
After April 30, 1975, the South was liberated and unified nationwide. On September 4, 1975, a revolutionary government was established at the American-Wei Gallery. On November 10, 1990, it was renamed into the Gallery of agøressive war crimes. On July 4, 1995, its officially renamed into the War Remnants Museum and has been remained so far.
Today, the War Remnants Museum is a unit of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City. Located in the system of Vietnamese museums, museums for world peace and a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). War Remnants Museum is a museum dedicated to the research, collection, storage, preservafion and display of documents, photos and exhibits of the crime vestiges and consequences of wars that agøressive forces have caused against Vietnam. Thereby, the Museum educates the public, especially the younger generation on the spirit of fighting for and protect independence and freedom of the Fatherland, on the sense of combating aggressive war, protecting peace, solidarity and friendship among peoples in the world.
The museum holds more than 20,000 documents, artifacts and movies, of which more than 1,500 documents, artifacfts and movies have been introduced in 09 regular exhibits. Currently, with more than l1 million visits each year, the War Remnants Museum is one of the most attractive cultural and tourist sites, gaining the trust of both domestic and foreign public.
On September 5, 2018, the international travel website Trip Advisor honored the best-voted museums in the world in 2018 (Travelers" Choice Awards for Museums 2018 category). While most of top 10 museums were from Europe and North America, the Vietnam's War Remnants Museum was the only Asian representative.