Last modified: 2016-04-23 by randy young
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The French administration destroyed most of the monuments of the center of Hanoi in 1896-1897 but kept the flag tower, which they used as a watching post and a liaison post between the command post and the other posts located elsewhere.
The tower was erected in 1812. It is made of three storeys [sic], which are truncated pyramids with a square base and surrounded with brick walls. The first story is 42.5 m wide and 3.1 m high. Access to the first story is through two brick stairs. The second storey is 25 m wide and 3.7 m high, with four doors. The eastern door bears the two characters Nghenh Huc (reception of the morning sunlight), the western door bears the two characters Hoi Quang (reflected light), and the southern door bears the characters Huong Minh (towards the light). There is nothing written on the northern door. The third story is 18 m wide and 5.1 m high. Access is through a stair reaching a northern door.
There is a tower upon the third story. The tower is a truncated octagonal pyramid, 2 m wide and 18.2 m high. A 54 step helicoidal stair is built inside the tower. The stair is lit and aired by 45 openings placed in groups of four or five all along the tower.
And there is eventually a small tower over the tower! The upper tower is octagonal, 3.3 m high, with one window in each side. On the top of the tower, in the middle, there is a cylindrical column, 0.4 m in diameter, used to attach the flag, whose pole is 8 m high.
Therefore, the height of the tower is 33.4 m and more than 41 m if the flag pole is counted.
The Flag Tower (Ky Dài or Côt Co) is the central place of the city of Hué [the former imperial capital of Viet Nam] and is nicknamed "the Flag Column." Seen from the Imperial City, the Tower looks like a big fortress with three superposed pyramids [The French text is not very clear]. The tower was erected in 1807 during the reign of Gia-Long. It was increased and embellished by the king Minh-Mang according to the document called Thuc Luc, which is the chronicle of the Nguyên dynasty [the last imperial dynasty]. It is 17.40 m high and made of three storeys of 5. 60 m, 5.80 m and 6 m, from bottom to top, respectively. The [horizontal] area of the tower increases from top to bottom. On this brick bastion are placed eight cannons. On two sides of the third story are placed two small fortresses. The column was initially made of wood, had two parts [storys ?] and was 29.52 m high. In 1846, the king Thieu-Tri rebuild it because he founded it ugly. During the reign of king Thanh-Thai, it was broken by the typhoon in the moon year Thin (1904). France helped to rebuild it in cast iron. The French Army came back 43 years later (1947), and the column was once again broken by the war. In 1948, a new 37-m high column was built in concrete. It had four parts [storys ?], the three uppermost enclosed in a balustrade, the bottommost part having a concrete terrace with many stairs. From bottom to top, the column is fixed by iron stems used as a stair [?].
During the era of the Nguyên kings, a yellow flag was hoisted every day on the tower. During the celebration days (for instance the National Day, called the Ceremony of the Nam-Giao Cult), a specific flag was hoisted. It was a 4 x 3.6 m flag made of sheepskin or brocade embroidered in the middle with a dragon and indented all around.