The white front
With coloured ceramic trim.
Hoangvantoanajc — Public domain · Khanhngujen (thảo luận) — Public domain · BrightRaven — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Hoangvantoanajc — CC BY-SA 3.0
The White Palace, Bach Dinh in Vietnamese and Villa Blanche in French, is a late 19th-century European villa on the southern slope of Big Mountain, looking over Front Beach. It stands on the site of the Phuoc Thang fort that Emperor Minh Mang built to guard the sea approach; Governor-General Paul Doumer approved it and named it after his wife, Blanche, and it was built between 1898 and 1902 as a summer retreat for the governors of Indochina. In September 1907 it became the place of house arrest of the deposed Emperor Thanh Thai, who lived there for nearly ten years until his exile in 1916; it then served the governors again, and from 1934 Emperor Bao Dai and his wife. It was listed as a national historic monument on 4 August 1992. The villa rises three storeys, with white walls and coloured ceramic decoration, and displays old furniture and pieces of antique ceramics. A road climbs to it, or 146 old steps between frangipani trees, and its terraces and garden have a wide view of the sea.
With coloured ceramic trim.
146 old steps.
From the terraces and garden.
Slope of Big Mountain, Tran Phu Street, Vung Tau
Governor-General Paul Doumer named it after his wife, Blanche, a word that also means white in French, hence its Vietnamese name Bach Dinh, the White Palace.
