page_title: Independence Palace
section_title: Colonial era
hierarchical_section_title: Independence Palace / Historical timeline / Colonial era
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Palais du Gouvernement Général en Cochinchine
context_page_description: Independence Palace, also publicly known as Reunification Palace. However, according to the authority of Ho Chi Minh city and historians, the name Reunification is for the main meeting-hall inside Independence Palace, for years, people have made mistakes between these names, the official English name of this place is Independence Palace. Built on the site of the former Norodom Palace, the palace is a landmark in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was designed by architect Ngô Viết Thụ and was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. During the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, it was the site of the end of the Vietnam War, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates.
context_section_description: In 1858, France launched an attack on Đà Nẵng, starting its invasion of Vietnam. In 1867, France completed its conquest of southern Vietnam (Cochinchina), comprising the provinces of Biên Hòa, Gia Định, Định Tường, Vĩnh Long, An Giang, and Hà Tiên. To consolidate the newly established colony, on 23 February 1868, Pierre-Paul de La Grandière, Governor of Cochinchina, held a ceremony to lay the foundation stone of a new palace to replace the old wooden palace built in 1863. The new Governor's Palace was designed by Achille-Antoine Hermitte, who was also the architect of the Hong Kong City Hall. The first cubic stone, measuring 50 cm along each edge, with indentations containing French gold and silver coins bearing Napoleon III's effigy, came from Biên Hòa.
  The complex covered an area of 12 hectares, including a palace with an 80-meter-wide façade, a guest-chamber capable of accommodating 800 people, with spacious gardens covered by green trees and a lawn. Most of the building materials were imported from France. Owing to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, construction fell behind schedule and was not completed until 1873. The palace was named Norodom Palace after the then king of Cambodia, Norodom (1834–1904). The avenue in front of the palace bore the same name. From 1871 to 1887, the palace was used by the French Governor of Cochinchina (Gouverneur de la Cochinchine); therefore, it was referred to as the Governor’s Palace. From 1887 to 1945, all Governors-General of French Indochina used the palace as their residence and office. The office of the Cochinchinese Governors was relocated to a nearby villa.
caption: Palace of the Governor-General (Norodom Palace) in Saigon, about 1896
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