The 99-door edifice of Saigon’s tycoon

Located at 97A Pho Duc Chinh (District 1, HCM City) on a beautiful quadrangle of over 4,000 m2, the HCM City Fine Arts Museum was once the residence of one of the four richest men in Saigon – Chinese Vietnamese tycoon Hua Bon Hoa.

The U-shaped building was designed by French architects and completed in 1925, with four stories, tiled roofs, and walls of 40-60 cm thick. 

The work represents a harmonious combination of European - Asian art.

The building is organized symmetrically, with Art-Deco as the main style. This was a popular school of architecture in the West in the early 20th century.

The imprint of this architecture is evident in the scale of the work and the generous architectural details.

The mansion has 99 doors, with different architectural styles. Since then, local people called this mansion the 99 door house.

Many doors have color glass-panels of European style. The house was originally designed with 100 doors but when the design was submitted to the authorities for approval, the main door was rejected for feng shui reasons.

The main entrance to the first floor.

The door to the lobby area. Right behind this Western-style door are parallel sentences in Chinese.

The entire floor of the mansion was paved with flowered enameled tiles.

Asian and European details are combined.

The blue enamel is used in many places in the mansion.

The house has an elevator, the most modern in the world in the early 20th century. This is one of the first works in Vietnam having an elevator.

The back of the house with a large door.

It is said that the French government did not allow people in this house to use the front gate because the door was larger that the door of the Governor’s Palace. Therefore, the homeowners had to use the smaller gate on the back.

The names of the homeowners who are children of tycoon Hua Bon Hoa are carved on a pillar of the back gate. After 1975, the family left Vietnam. In 1992, the house became the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum, with more than 20,000 artworks of all periods.

Today, visitors to the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum, in addition to enjoy, learn about the art can also admire a unique architectural work. In the photo: A foreign tourist looks at a lacquer painting by Nguyen Gia Tri.