Saigon Central Post Office

The Saigon Central Post Office (Vietnamese: Bưu điện Trung tâm Sài Gòn, French: Poste centrale de Saïgon), is a post office in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, near Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, the city's cathedral.

History

Saigon Central Post Office in 1895

The building was constructed when Vietnam was part of French Indochina in the late 19th century. It counts with Gothic, Renaissance and French influences. It was constructed between 1886 and 1891 and is now a tourist attraction.^[1]

It was designed by Alfred Foulhoux,^[2] but is often erroneously credited as being the work of Gustave Eiffel or a collaboration between Foulhoux and Hanoi-based Auguste Henri Vildieu. As translated by the historian Tim Doling, the journal Architecte constructeur: Revue du monde architectural et artistique of 15 September 1891 commented: “The inauguration the new Saigon Post Office, which was held on July 14, had been postponed until the return of the Governor General. This monument, adorned with a most artistic façade, is particularly well laid out and well equipped for the different services to which it is intended; it does the greatest honour to the skill and talent of the distinguished Chief Architect of the Colony, M. Foulhoux.”^[3]

On the outside wall of the post office there are several plaques commemorating important scientists and engineers, who contributed to the development of the communication technologies of the time. These include Morse, Ampere, Volta, Ohm, and Faraday.

Plaque commemorating Laplace

Inside the Saigon Central Post office of special note are two painted maps that were created just after the post office was built, the first one located on the left side of the building is a map of Southern Vietnam and Cambodia titled Lignes telegraphiques du Sud Vietnam et Cambodge 1892 ("Telegraphic lines of Southern Vietnam and Cambodia 1892").

Map of South Vietnam and Cambodia showing telegraph lines

The second map of greater Saigon is titled Saigon et ses environs 1892 ("Saigon and its surroundings 1892").^[4]

Map of Saigon

Dương Văn Ngộ, known for being the last public letter writer in Vietnam, worked at the office from 1990 to 2021.

Gallery

Front view of the Saigon Central Post Office
Interior view of the Saigon Central Post Office

References

^ "Saigon Central Post Office". Travelfish.org. Archived from the original on 11 December 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
^ "Foulhoux's Saigon". Historic Việt Nam – Tim Doling's Heritage Portal. 3 January 2014. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
^ "Informations". L'Architecte constructeur : revue du monde architectural et artistique (in French). Vol. 42. 15 September 1891. p. 326. Archived from the original on 11 December 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2021 – via Gallica.
^ Hoffman, Ben (10 September 2012). "Saigon Central Post Office Ho Chi Minh City". Vietnam Travel Guy. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2012.