The French front
Corinthian columns and grapevines.
Daaé — Public domain · Thuydaonguyen — CC BY 3.0 · Thuydaonguyen — CC BY 3.0
The Binh Thuy ancient house, officially the ancestral hall of the Duong family, is one of the finest merchant houses in southern Vietnam, about five kilometres from central Can Tho. The Duong family built their first house here in 1870, when Binh Thuy was the centre of the old village of Long Tuyen; Duong Chan Ky began rebuilding it in 1904, and it reached its present form in 1911. It is a model of what is called the Indochinese style of the early 20th-century south: a French front in the Art Nouveau manner, with Corinthian columns and moulded grapevines, and behind it a traditional five-bay Vietnamese house of carved wooden columns and beams, with furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The garden holds ornamental plants and an orchid collection, which is why some call it the orchid house, and scenes of several films were shot here, among them the French film The Lover in 1992. The family still lives in the house and receives visitors, so this is a private home rather than a museum, and the small fee is set by them. The front and courtyard can be photographed from outside free of charge, and half an hour to an hour is enough.
Corinthian columns and grapevines.
Carved columns, mother-of-pearl inlay.
Which gave the house a nickname.
142-144 Bui Huu Nghia Street, Binh Thuy
No. It is the Duong family's home, still lived in, and they welcome visitors for a small fee they set themselves, so keep quiet and respect the household.