Tu Duc Tomb

Our next stop was the tomb of Emperor #4 Tu Duc. This was classical Vietnamese in style, and was used by the Emperor as a recreational area in his lifetime and then he and important people of his court were eventually laid to rest there.

Tu Duc was the 4th emperor, of the Nguyen dynasty and ruled from 1847 to 1883, making his reign the longest of the Nguyen dynasty. The tomb was constructed from 1864 to 1867, to worship and bury Tu Duc (and later his first wife and one of his adopted sons). Tu Duc had more than 100 wives but was childless due to smallpox as a child. In this period, Vietnam faced the conquest of European colonists and missionaries. Tu Duc's treaties with the French, turned Vietnam into a colony in which French people half-controlled the central government.Read more