Dien Khanh Citadel

About 10 kilometers northwest of central Nha Trang, a citadel more than 200 years old still stands in the middle of a modern town. People walk through its gates every day. Children play in the shade of its walls. All of this ordinary life goes on around a national historic site that has seen more than two centuries of ups and downs in the land of Khánh Hòa.

This is the Diên Khánh Citadel, in Diên Khánh commune, Khánh Hòa Province. Nguyễn Ánh had it built in 1793. It covers about 36,000 square meters, and it was designed in the Vauban style.

The Vauban style spread through Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was developed by a French military engineer named Vauban. Its walls do not run in a straight line or a plain rectangle. They fold and zigzag, with corners that jut out, so defenders can watch the walls and fire across them from the side. Add a moat outside, and the system makes several layers of defense. Nguyễn Ánh adapted this European style to Vietnam, using earth rather than the stone or fired brick used in Europe.

The Nhân Dân newspaper reports that Nguyễn Ánh took the Diên Khánh area from the Tây Sơn in 1793. The Tây Sơn were three brothers who led an uprising from 1771 and for a time ruled Vietnam. Nguyễn Ánh judged the place to be a strong position, and he built the citadel as a base. From 1802 to 1945, it was the political and administrative center of Khánh Hòa Province.

The walls form an uneven hexagon, about 2,694 meters around and about 3.5 meters high. The outer face is nearly vertical. The inner face slopes gently in two steps, which served as paths. At the corners stand earth mounds about 2 meters high, where cannon were placed, giving lookout points and firepower in many directions. Outside lies a moat, kept filled with water brought in from the Cái River.

The citadel first had six gates. Four remain: the East Gate, the West Gate, the front gate on the south side, and the back gate on the north side. The East and West gates are fairly intact, and people still pass through them every day. It is a small example of how an old monument can blend into present-day life.

The citadel is tied to more than the Nguyễn era. The same newspaper says it once served as headquarters of the Cần Vương fighters in Khánh Hòa, in the first days of the struggle against French colonial rule. Cần Vương means "aid the king", and the edict called on the people to resist the French. The movement led by Trịnh Phong ran from 1885 to 1886. In 1908, the citadel held the patriot Trần Quý Cáp as a prisoner. It also saw events of the resistance in August 1945.

Today it is an open space, where local people still come and go through four gates every day. Standing before the East Gate or the West Gate, you can see earth and brick 200 years old, yet it does not feel like standing before a museum.

That may be the most remarkable thing about the Diên Khánh Citadel. A military work more than 200 years old was once the base of a Nguyễn lord, once the administrative center of a whole province, and once a stronghold for those who resisted the French. Now it is an inseparable part of everyday life. The walls still stand. The moat is still there. And people still step through the gates each morning, as they have for 200 years.