Care for monuments

In 2023, Khanh Hoa Province’s cultural sector and localities have carried out many preservation and restoration activities in order to promote the values of historical and cultural monuments in the province.

Renovating many monuments

In early August, the provincial Department of Culture and Sports checked and took over the renovation project of Ninh Hoa Prefects’ House. The house was built in 1820 during the reign of the Nguyen Dynasty, featuring ancient architecture of Vietnam. Ninh Hoa Prefects’ House is associated with important historical events in the revolutionary struggles of Khanh Hoa people under the Party's leadership. It was renovated in October 2022 with the total investment of over VND3.3 billion and has reopened in 2023.

Ninh Hoa Prefects’ House after renovation (Photo: Song Na)

Ninh Hoa Prefects’ House is one of the twelve monuments approved to be renovated in the 2020-2023 period by the provincial People’s Council. Five monuments are under renovation and are expected to reopen in the first quarter of 2024, including Hung Vuong Temple (Nha Trang City), Lap Dinh Communal House (Cam Lam District), headquarters of Ba Ngoi Revolutionary People's Committee, Tra Long Communal House (Cam Ranh City), and Quang Dong Communal House (Ninh Hoa Town). Besides, the provincial Department of Culture and Sports is completing the documents for renovation projects of Tan My Communal House (Van Ninh District); Phong Thanh Communal House, Hoi Dong Temple, Thanh Chau Communal House (Ninh Hoa Town); and Thanh Minh Communal House (Dien Khanh District). These monuments are expected to be renovated, completed and handed over to the localities in 2024.

In addition, the investment and renovation project of the national monument of Dien Khanh Ancient Citadel with a total investment of VND166 billion has been launched. Some localities such as Nha Trang City have renovated and repaired 21 monuments with an expenditure of VND23.8 billion. In 2023, ten monuments in the province have been renovated with a total cost of VND1.2 billion from public contribution, including communal houses of Thuan Loi, Hau Phuoc, Phuoc Da, Diem Tinh, Xuan Hoa, Tien Du and Kim Long Pagoda (Ninh Hoa Town); Phu Cap Communal House, Nghiep Thanh Communal House, Hoi Phuoc Communal House (Dien Khanh District). The provincial Department of Culture and Sports has also proposed investment on 15 province-level monuments in the 2024-2025 period with a total capital estimated at VND61.8 billion. 

Effort to introduce and promote monuments

In order to widely introduce the monuments in the province to the public, especially young people, during 2023, the provincial Monument Preservation Center has organized district- level and province-level contests on cultural heritages; cooperated with schools to hold extracurricular activities about cultural heritages for pupils; held school trips to Ponagar Temple and Hon Chong tourist site for 3,900 pupils of 22 schools in the province. The center has also applied digital techniques to facilitate the visit of visitors. For example, the center has used QR codes providing guides at 13 out of 16 national monuments; placed QR codes on the website ditichkhanhhoa.org.vn to provide visitors with audio information about the national monuments in Vietnamese and English. The province’s cultural sector cooperated with the localities to organize Ponagar Temple Festival, Hung Kings' Commemoration Day, Am Chua Festival, etc.

National monument Dien Khanh Ancient Citadel

As reported by Nguyen Van Nhuan, director of Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Culture and Sports, there are 130 monuments in the province, including 16 national-level monuments, 180 province-level monuments and 34 other monuments which haven’t been classified yet. In 2023, Khanh Hoa has implemented well the preservation and promotion of values of the cultural heritages. Apart from the positive results, some difficulties such as limited budget and remote locations of many revolutionary monuments partly affected the repair and renovation.

Giang Dinh
Translated by H.N