Hoa Lu was chosen as the first capital of the feudal state under the Emperor Dinh Tien Hoang from 968. Today, the ruins of Hoa Lu ancient town belong to Truong Yen Commune, Hoa Lu District, Ninh Binh Province, about 100km south of Hanoi. Although only been the capital of Dai Co Viet (former name of Vietnam) in a short time (42 years – 968 to 1010), there are many events related to the destiny of the nation. The successive dynasties were the Dinh Dynasty, the Le Dynasty and the Ly Dynasty with historical landmarks: unified the country, defeat Northern invaders and the process of capitalizing Hanoi.

Relics of Hoa Lu ancient capital

According to the history of the ancient capital of Hoa Lu, we found that Hoa Lu was a magnificent palace and a busy trading town. Geographically, we will see why King Dinh Tien Hoang had chosen Hoa Lu as the capital city: the mountain hills range wrapping around the capital like a natural shield; and the Hoang Long River meandering and immense fields are natural trenches and very militarily favorable.

Hoa Lu ancient capital of about 300ha, including the outer citadel, inner citadel and south citadel, surrounded by a series of stone arches, majestic landscape, the gap between the mountainside is built in brick. The outer citadel is about 140ha located in Yen Thanh village, Truong Yen commune. This is the main palace that now are Dinh and Le temple area and also the place where King Dinh Tien Hoang set up the reign.

Today, the image of Hoa Lu ancient citadel is not intact, but rather the temple: King Dinh – King Le was built on the base of the ancient Hoa Lu citadel. The two temples are about 500 meters apart, which “Hoa Lu Ancient Capital” also known as “Temple of King Dinh – King Le”.

King Dinh’s temple was built in the style of “nội công ngoại quốc” (internal shape looks like Chinese character “cong” 工 and external shape looks like character “quoc” 国, character 工 is located in the center, in font is the interior altar hall and both sides are corridors) on the place situated the ancient palace.

Le King’s temple is about 500 meters away from King Dinh Temple worshiping King Le Dai Hanh. Le temple is smaller scale. The temple of King Le also retains many traces of ancient architecture with elaborate engravings. Here the old palace relics and some ancient ceramics were found. These precious objects are kept in the museum room on the left side of the temple. Hoa Lu relics also have some nice temples, such as Ngan Xuyen Pagoda (near the foot of Ma Yen Mountain), Nhat Tru Pagoda (about 200 meters away from the Le Emperor) attracts visitors to offer incense…

With a distance of 100km from Hanoi and just about 2 hours driving, travel to Hoa Lu Vietnam and hear stories of kings, you can also combine with some other attractions in Ninh Binh such as Bai Dinh – Trang An, Tam Coc – Bich Dong, Phat Diem Stone Church or Thung Nham, Van Long…