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  Saigon Central Post Office

 

Vietnam

The Saigon Central Post Office in downtown Ho Chi Minh City is described as being a mix of Neo-Baroque, Renaissance and Gothic styles, while incorporating roof ridge decorations (fig.) inspired by Khmer art, years before the term Indochinese fusion-style architecture was coined.

 

Today, it has besides the original French colonial style also some local Vietnamese input, such as the portrait painting of Ho Chi Minh at the end of the main interior hall. The building features plenty of metalwork, such as the metal columns, arches and ornaments, as well as the heavy entrance gates and the eves of the roof over the entrance.

 

  Saigon Central Post Office

 

  Saigon Central Post Office

 

Perhaps it is this feature that has led to the false rumour now circulating, that the building was designed or built by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel.

 

This civil engineer and architect, and a compatriot of Alfred Foulhoux, was indeed active around the same period and also in Vietnam, where he built two bridges, but he had no involvement whatsoever in the construction of the Saigon Central Post Office.

 

  Saigon Central Post Office

 

More Vietnamese influences can be found in the patriotic and heroic Socialist Realist style bronze statues in the front garden.

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