Independence Palace
Presidential Palace of South Vietnam
The Independence Palace (Vietnamese: Dinh Độc Lập), also publicly and officially known as the Reunification Convention Hall or simply Reunification Hall (Vietnamese: Hội trường Thống Nhất), is a historic landmark and government-owned public hall in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), Vietnam. It was designed by architect Ngô Viết Thụ and was the presidential palace, home and workplace of the president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). It was also the site of the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975 that ended the Vietnam War, when a Liberation Army of South Vietnam tank crashed through its gates.
After the reunification of Vietnam, the building continued to serve as a government and presidential office until 1976 when the capital of South Vietnam was officially moved to Hanoi, and the government's functions were relocated. The palace is now preserved as a convention hall for state events, and also as a museum that is open to the public, and is a popular tourist attraction in Ho Chi Minh City.
History
Republic of Vietnam
Construction of the current Independence Palace was ordered by President Ngô Đình Diệm in 1962 to replace the old palace, which was badly damaged due to being bombed by two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots. It was constructed according to a design by Ngô Viết Thụ, a Vietnamese architect who won the First Grand Prize of Rome (Grand Prix de Rome) in 1955, the highest recognition of the Beaux-Arts school in Paris. He was also a laureate of the Prix de Rome awarded by the French government.
The construction of the palace started on 1 July 1962. Meanwhile, Diệm and his ruling family moved to Gia Long Palace (today the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City).
“Independence Palace” enters the record as presidential Palace of South Vietnam. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Independence, Palace and Presidential can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Independence Palace” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Independence, Palace and Presidential provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q933384. Authority coordinates are 10.777, 106.695. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 1976, 1962 and 1955.
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This entry incorporates text from “Independence Palace” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.