Museum of Ho Chi Minh City

Dinh Gia Long was designed by French architect Alfred Foulhoux and built between 1885 and 1890, initially intended as a Commercial Trade Museum to showcase products from southern Vietnam.
Midway through construction, the colonial authorities decided instead to use it as the residence of the Vice‑Governor‑General of Indochina, so Foulhoux had to significantly adjust the design, and the building became known locally as Dinh Phó Soái.

From 1889 to 1945, more than 30 French Vice‑Governors‑General and Governors of Cochinchina lived and worked in Gia Long Palace, making it one of the main seats of colonial power in Saigon.
Its grand staircases and high‑ceilinged rooms, originally meant for colonial ceremonies, became the backdrop for administrative decisions that shaped southern Vietnam under French rule.

In 1945 alone, the palace changed hands multiple times: from French to Japanese control, then to Emperor Bảo Đại’s representative Nguyễn Văn Sâm, then to the Việt Minh, then to British troops, and finally back to the returning French.
This rapid succession of owners in a single year mirrors the chaotic political situation in southern Vietnam at the end of World War II and the beginning of the anti‑colonial war.

After the 1962 bombing of the Independence Palace, President Ngô Đình Diệm moved into Gia Long Palace and ordered the construction of a heavily reinforced underground bunker, capable of withstanding heavy artillery and 500 kg bombs.
During the November 1963 coup, rebel forces fought for hours to capture the palace; Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu briefly took refuge in the bunker before escaping by car to Chợ Lớn, where they were later captured and killed.

From the late 1960s until 1975, Gia Long Palace served as the seat of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Vietnam, then after reunification it was used by various state agencies before becoming the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City in 1999.
Today, its exhibits and architecture together show how one building has watched—and embodied—Saigon’s shifts from colony to republic to socialist city, finally returning to its original intended role as a museum.