Welcome to the Hanoi Museum!
The Hanoi Museum
was established in 1982 under the Decision of the Hanoi People's Committee, to
be located at 5D, Ham Long, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi. Following the re-drawing of the
administrative boundaries of Hanoi City and related provinces in August 2008,
in compliance with Resolution No. 15/2008/QH12, dated May 29th, 2008
of the 12th National Assembly, the Hanoi Museum and the Ha Tay
Museum merged to form the new Hanoi Museum.
On the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi, the Party Committee, the People's Council and the People's Committee of Hanoi decided to launch a project to construct an appropriate structure to house the new Hanoi Museum. Construction work began on May 19th, 2008 at Pham Hung Street, Me Tri Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi, and the new building was inaugurated on October 6th, 2010. The Museum building, designed by the German architecture firm gmp - von Gerkan, Marg und Partner - Architects, is modern and unique, inspired by the One Pillar Pagoda. It consists of 4 upper Levels and 2 Basements. The 1st Level with doors in each of the 4 directions catches the fresh air from each direction, symbolizing convergence from all 4 directions to the capital - the land of Thang Long - Hanoi with thousands of years of culture and tradition. In 2016, the building was voted by Business Insider as one of the 36 most beautiful museums in the world.
The organization of the Hanoi Museum consists of the Board of Directors and 4 functional departments, namely:
1. Department of Administration;
2. Department of Collection, Inventory and Conservation;
3. Department of Display and Education;
4. Department of Technical Services;
The Hanoi Museum is now home to more than 70,000 documents and artifacts with many different materials, proving the thousands of years of history of Thang Long - Hanoi. Several artifacts are very valuable and highly appreciated by the scientific community; they include bronze drums, ceramics, jades, ivories, and artifacts associated with the resistance revolution… The Hanoi Museum is currently holding 5 categories of artifacts recognized as National Treasures: a grayish-blue glazed ceramic lampstand, a ceramic Long dinh from Bat Trang, the Thanh Mai bronze bell, the Co Loa bronze drum and bronze plowshares found in the drum, and a collection of weapons of the Giang Vo Military School.
For many years, the Hanoi Museum has been focused on acquiring artifacts and growing the contents of the collections for permanent display. The permanent displays include Theme 1: Nature; Theme 2: The Journey to Thang Long; Theme 3: Thang Long in Dai Viet era; Theme 4: Hanoi in the 19th - 20th centuries; Theme 5: The Resistance; Theme 6: Socialist Construction; Theme 7: Hanoi towards the future. There are also experiential discovery spaces, thematic exhibitions and outdoor displays.
Current displays at the Museum include short-term exhibitions in the garden areas, and indoors displays at Levels 1, 2 and 3; meanwhile considerable resources are allocated toward building up the Museum permanent collection.