Saigon is a city full of museums. Although many were established since the end of the American War, most occupy historical buildings around the center of the city. Museums make a nice place to escape the heat of the street, even though many of them are not air conditioned.
The Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum is housed in a former commercial building dating from the turn of the twentieth century near the Ben Thah market.
The Vietnamese History Museum is housed in a building sited in the large park and zoo located at the end of Le Duan Street. The galleries are all on a single floor, although the levels change some between one hall and another through the circular plan.
The building now called the Reunification Palace was once the Presidential Palace for the republic of South Vietnam. This is where the South's fall to the North finally happened on 30 April 1975.
The Ho Chi Minh City Museum is housed in a late nineteenth century building which remains elegant despite its battleship gray paint job. Completed in 1885 to a French design, it was originally intended as a museum. However, it was appropriated for use as the Cochinchina Governor's Palace. After the 1945 revolution, it became the French High Commissioner's residence office. It then became the Southern Governor's Palace and was later used for a time as the Supreme Court.
The Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum is housed in a former commercial building dating from the turn of the twentieth century. The displays cover three floors of the large structure. The first floor displays changing exhibits of contemporary art by local and international artists. The second floor galleries display contemporary art from the museum's permanent collection. The collection features sketches, paintings and statues, many of which focus on the resistance to the various colonial rulers.
The Vietnamese History Museum is housed in a building sited in the large park and zoo located at the end of Le Duan Street. The galleries are all on a single floor, although the levels change some between one hall and another through the circular plan.
Each gallery focuses on a different era of Vietnamese history, starting with the stone age and proceeding up through the French colonial period as you move clockwise through the building.
