Turtle tower is an architectural work considered as a significant landmark of Hoan Kiem lake.

Turtle tower is a typical architecture of Sword lake

The tower had the courtesy name Quy Son tower meaning Turtle Mountain tower (because it’s a natural eyot where turtles have usually basked in the sun and laid eggs in summer). 

Six hundred years ago, under the reign of King Le Thanh Tong, a pavilion or Dieu Dai  was built for the King to rest while going fishing. 

Under the later Le Restoration dynasty (aroung 17th – 18th centuries), lord Trinh built Ta Vong temple on the mound but it was left abandoned and in decadence  during the Nguyen dynasty in the 19th century.

After the French occupation in 1883, the people living in the lake’s surroundings were displaced and the Vietnamese dignitaries also left their offices. 

Only Nguyen Ngoc Kim, a Tu Thap village official remained on duty and served as mediator between the local people and the French occupation forces. He was called by the villagers notable Kim. 

Around 1884-1886, a geomancy belief told  Kim that it would be of good fortune for his family to bury his parents’ remains in the eyot. Kim then used the excuse to build a tower there to  sneakily bury his parent.  

Knowing Kim’s scheme, the local people secretly digged up his parents’ remains  and threw them into the lake.   

Initially, this tower was named the village’s notable Kim. During the French colonial period, on the top of the Turtle Tower, a version of the Statue of Liberty (1890-1896)  was erected and called an ironic name “Statue of the Open-Dress Dame”. 

After 1945, this statue was demolished   when the nationalist government of Tran Trong Kim was in power.

Turtle tower is sparkling and fanciful at night

Because the tower was built by an ideal not very noble, after the August revolution in 1945, the people planned to demolish it. However, it was kept to hung  a revolutionary flag. Through the ups and downs of history, the Turtle tower has become familiar   for every citizen of Hanoi and tourists from all over the world. 

The tower is a combination of European and Asian architecture – with gothic arches at its first two storeys  combined with  the hip  roof of Vietnam architecture.

The rectangle-shaped brick tower has four facades and four storeys and was built  on a mound measuring 350 square meters. The base floor is the largest. The upper floors are narrower.   

There are three arches on the eastern and western sides while two   arches are found on the southern and northern sides. The first and the top floor are fenced with horizontal and vertical spindle. Four ridge lines  bend toward the middle of the roof. The top tower is a 5-pointed star shape.  

The tower structure features traditional style combined with foreign traits  such as rectangular-shaped underframe and arches of  Western Gothic art. From Jade ilet, the tower looks outstanding on the green grass and sparkling in green lake appealing to many poets and writers.

Hanoitimes