Garden
Thiệu Phương Garden
Royal retreat rebuilt on the exact footprint archaeologists dug from beneath the soil.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Thiệu Phương Garden in the Huế Imperial City follows the archaeologists who tried to rebuild a royal garden that had vanished from the ground for over a century. Built for Emperor Minh Mạng in eighteen twenty-eight and expanded by his son, Emperor Thiệu Trị, it was torn down after Emperor Tự Đức's reign and survived only in old court poems. You will hear what a two thousand four excavation turned up beneath the soil, and how thin the evidence was that conservators worked from. Best heard standing at the garden's four-armed corridor.
This audio guide was created using AI.