With the dream of building a French-style administrative capital in the Indochina, French architects constructed a number of buildings in the heart of Hanoi over the past century.
The building were erected at the end of the 19th and early 20th century such as the Hanoi Opera House, Louis Finot museum (now the Vietnam History Museum), Hanoi Post Office, Indochina University (now Hanoi National University), Indochina Finance Office (now the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and Doumer bridge (currently Long Bien bridge).
Director of the State Records and Archives Department under the Ministry of Home Affairs Dang Thanh Tung said the exhibition enables visitors to access to French culture and aims to raise public awareness of preserving and promoting the cultural heritage values of French architecture in Hanoi.
The event kicked start a series of cooperative activities between the Vietnamese department, the Embassy of France in Vietnam, and the French National Archives, he added.
French Ambassador to Vietnam Bertrand Lortholary said the exhibition took place on the occasion of the 100th founding anniversary of the Indochina library and archives, which proves the long-term relations between Vietnam and France, especially in the preservation and promotion of archival heritage.
The exhibition runs until November 5.
