Nguyen Van Cu, known as a ‘genie,' along with a team of engineers, successfully relocated a temple gate, which is over 200 years old and weighs more than 100 metric tons, to a secure, new location in Hong Linh Town, Ha Tinh Province, north-central Vietnam after 10 days of hard work.

Relocation guru Cu and his team moved Thanh Van Chang Temple in two sections which formed a right angle, Nguyen Xuan Thang, chairman of Duc Thuan Ward in Hong Linh Town, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Tuesday.

They had to relocate the gate on the initial 32-meter-long section and rotate it by 90 degrees, before proceeding to advance it along a 31-meter-long section.

Cu and his team have successfully relocated the temple gate. Currently, they are in the process of transporting machinery and equipment to the site to augment the foundation of the gate by an additional 1.2 meters. The entire task is anticipated to take approximately 10 more days to complete.

Thanh Van Chang Temple was built in the 18th century and eventually fell into ruin.

Only the gate, which is five meters high and three meters wide and made of honeycomb stones, bricks, and mortar, remains.

At the end of 2022, the administration of Hong Linh Town kicked off a beltway project with a length of three kilometers and a width of 30 meters.

However, the gate of Thanh Van Chang Temple obstructed the project.

Local authorities decided to invite Cu to relocate the temple gate.

The relocation initiative commenced on January 4, incurring a total cost of VND800 million (US$32,670).

This amount comprises VND700 million ($28,699) designated for the actual relocation process and VND100 million ($4,092) allocated for reinforcing the foundation of the temple at its new position.

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