Ninety eight ancient garden houses, typical of Hue’s age-old tradition and sophisticated architecture have ‘disappeared’ over the past six years, a report from Hue People’s Committee meeting last December revealed.
The shocking report stated that only 52 of a total of 150 estates, which were listed as provincial heritages in need of protection by local government, still retained their original shape and structure.
Hue’s garden houses, normally a large wooden house surrounded by a spacious garden, embody symbolic values of the old capital’s culture, architecture, history, religion and art and have been designated as tourist attractions.
However, over the past six years, 98 of these 150 houses have either been dismantled, destroyed, or their gardens appropriated for other purposes, despite the adoption of a governmental project in 2006 to preserve these structures.
The revelation comes as an irony as in 2012, Hue will play host to the national Northern Central Tourism Campaign to promote heritage tourism in the region.
Among many reasons that force its owners to damage the original architecture is the growing need for living spaces, as the family size of the houses’ heirs keep growing through time.
A garden house built in 1932 and located at 38/3 Le Thanh Ton street (Hue) lost its entire surrounding garden to two modern two-storey buildings put up on both sides.
“Our family has ten people, we can’t just live cramped in the old wooden house forever,” the owner’s son told Tuoi Tre.
The nobleman Tuy An’s house at 96 Nguyen Chi Thanh Street, which was constructed in 1844, is another example of badly preserved heritages in Hue.
Located in Gia Hoi ancient town, once famously home to many members of the Nguyen Royal family, the main wooden house is now surrounded not by spacious gardens, but 14 new small houses occupied by their descendants.
Other houses that can stand the erosion of time and human habitation have now closed their doors to curious foreign tourists who know the sites through their travel guidebooks or local tour operators.
Nguyen Thi Minh Trang, owner of the garden house at 1 Phu Mong, Kim Long, complained that though the government’s preservation project was authorized nearly six years ago, it failed to provide any financial support to owners like her who opened their doors to tourists.
“Every day I had to dress up nicely, make tea for the tourists and then sit to answer hundreds of their questions without making any money.
“I have to support myself so I decided to close the house to have time to work,” Trang said.
Although most of the estates’ owners turned their guests away, some still, unwillingly, operated as tourist attractions since local tour operators kept taking tourists to their doors.
Hue’s government issued a decision to protect these heritages in 2006, which led to an authorized preservation project for 150 garden houses in need of safeguarding.
However, the project had, until recently, got stuck in the bureaucratic labyrinth and its implementation fell far too short of local demands.
Ngo Anh Tuan, deputy head of Hue’s People Committee said excessive bureaucracy and a lack of coordination among related agencies were to blame.
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