Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History

The museum traces its origins to the death of antiquities collector Holbé in the 1920s; the Society for Indochinese Studies raised funds to buy his artifacts and convinced Governor Blanchard de la Brosse to create a museum to house them.
On 28 November 1927, a decree founded the Musée Blanchard de la Brosse, and a hybrid “Indochinois” building was designed by French architect Auguste Delaval and completed in 1928–1929 at 2 Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm.

At its opening on 1 January 1929, the museum came under the scientific supervision of the École Française d’Extrême‑Orient, making it a key research hub for both colonial scholars and Vietnamese antiquities.
Its distinctive façade, curved tiled roofs and dragon‑decorated entrance make it one of the few surviving examples of the “Indochinois” architectural style, where French officials tried to create buildings that looked both European and “Asian” at once.

In 1956 the Musée Blanchard de la Brosse was rebranded the National Museum of Vietnam, and after reunification in 1975 it was reorganised as the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History, telling the story from prehistoric cultures to the Nguyễn dynasty.
Each name change marks a shift in who controlled the narrative of Vietnam’s past: from French scholars to southern republic officials to the post‑1975 socialist state.

Today the museum’s galleries hold more than 40,000 artifacts, including 12 national treasures, ranging from prehistoric stone tools to Cham sculptures, Nguyễn court objects and the only mummy preserved in Vietnam (the Xóm Cải mummy from District 5).
For many visitors, it is the first place where they encounter the depth of pre‑colonial history behind the familiar image of Saigon as just a French colonial port.

Through wars, revolutions and regime changes, the museum building itself has remained almost unchanged, a rare architectural constant in a city that has repeatedly reinvented itself.
Walking through its courtyards and halls is like moving through layers of Vietnamese historiography, from colonial ethnography to post‑independence national history.