Bao Dai Palace of Da Lat

The palace occupies a pine-covered hill on Triệu Việt Vương Street, about 2 kilometers southwest of the center of Da Lat. It sits 1,539 meters above sea level. People call it the Bảo Đại Palace of Da Lat, or Dinh Three. It was a summer villa tied to Emperor Bảo Đại, the last emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. That was Vietnam's last royal dynasty, and it reigned from 1802 to 1945.

The story of this house cannot be separated from the complicated history of Vietnam in the early 20th century. Bảo Đại took the throne in 1926, at a time when real power lay with the French. Da Lat was then a hill resort. The emperor chose it for holidays far from the stifling heat of the imperial capital, Hue.

The sources differ on when the palace was built. The national tourism authority gives the year 1933. The Lâm Đồng Newspaper says work began in 1939 and finished in 1943, to a design by the architect Nguyễn Văn Ninh. The dates are still debated. Even so, the house stands among the pines, quiet, like a witness to a whole era.

The palace has two floors and 25 rooms, by the count of the national tourism authority. The ground floor was for receiving guests and for work. It holds a waiting room, the emperor's study, the main reception room, a smaller room for friendly visits, a banquet area, a dining room and a kitchen. The upper floor was the private space of the family. Here are the emperor's bedroom and the room of Empress Nam Phương. Prince Bửu Long and Princess Phương Mai had rooms here too, along with other family rooms.

Standing in these rooms, it is easy to imagine not only a powerful couple but a whole family with growing children. They lived in a space both formal and warm, among the pines of Da Lat. Empress Nam Phương, whose birth name was Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan, was the first Vietnamese woman made an empress under the Nguyễn dynasty. She was Catholic, refined, and educated in the Western style. A description in the Lâm Đồng Newspaper says her piano once stood in the main reception room.

The palace also keeps many historical objects. The national tourism authority also lists military seals, a jade seal, state letters, a national flag, busts of Emperor Bảo Đại and Emperor Khải Định, family photographs and everyday belongings. They remind a visitor that this is a space tied to a dynasty now past, and to real people, not invented characters.

Later, from 1948 to 1950, the French brought Bảo Đại back to power. In those years the palace was also called the Biệt điện Quốc trưởng, the Chief of State's Residence. The people of Da Lat were used to calling it the Emperor's Villa. Both names show what this place meant in local memory.

In 2023, the Lâm Đồng provincial government issued a decision placing Dinh Three in the first group of villas on its list of state-owned villas. This is the group with typical value in architecture, landscape, history and culture. Not every old villa in Da Lat is placed in this group.

From the balcony of the upper floor, looking out over the pine garden, one can imagine a Da Lat afternoon in the 1940s. A piano plays softly from the main reception room. Royal children play in the shade of the trees. A king stands here looking down on a city of mist, not knowing that his dynasty will end in only a few years. History still lingers in every room and every object of Dinh Three.