Chu Quyen Communal House is located on the banks of the Red River in Chu Minh Commune, Ba Vi District, Hanoi. Over the years, the over 400 year-old communal house with unique architectural features and decorative carvings has been part of the sacred land.

Chu Quyen Communal House was built in the 17th century to worship Nha Lang, the eldest son of Ly Phat Tu (the 6th century) and his concubine, La Thi Ngoc Thanh.

It was considered the largest one in the area of Doai with the traditional wooden architectural style of the Vietnamese. For local people, the communal house is a place for both spiritual and cultural activities.

The communal house was designed facing the northwest with a large lake in front of it. It has a great hall with three compartments and two lean-tos. In the middle is a worshipping hall with doors skillfully carved with different shapes and patterns.

The roof is wide and slopes downward with four curved swords at the four corners, giving the communal house a magnificent and elegant appearance.

The floor of the communal house was made from wood and divided into three parts for people to sit on according to the hierarchy when they met together to discuss the village affairs in the past.

Around the communal house are brick walls in which there are rectangular holes and rows of wooden handrails.

The wooden parts of Chu Quyen Communal House are real artistic works that were delicately carved with different themes, reflecting the real life such as the scenes of people dancing, singing and drinking wine.

All the beams and doors were decorated with patterns, dragons, phoenixes flanking a moon, dragons flanking a pearl and dragons and lions.

The communal house now preserves stories of the gods and ancient objects of great historical value. They include 15 ordinances of the dynasties of Le Trung Hung (1533-1788), Tay Son (1778-1802) and Nguyen (1802-1945).

Chu Quyen Communal House was ranked as a national cultural historical relic in 1962.

Due to severe damages caused by time and worms, in 2007 the communal house was restored in large scale under a relic preservation project.

The project helped define factors that had negative impacts on the relic. It also used traditional materials and new technology to consolidate the foundation and improve the environment and scenery of the whole relic.

The successful restoration of the communal house, using advanced techniques to maintain its unique features, brought the project a prize for preserving architectural heritages in Asia and Oceania in 2010 by the Union of International Architects (UIA).

Source: VNP