Vietnam National Museum of History

The Vietnam National Museum of History occupies a handsome French colonial building on Trang Tien street that traces Vietnamese civilisation from prehistoric times through the Bronze Age Dong Son culture, the thousand years of Chinese domination, the independent Vietnamese dynasties, French colonialism, and the wars that defined the 20th century. The collection includes Dong Son bronze drums (2,000 years old, decorated with scenes of daily life), Cham Hindu sculpture from central Vietnam, Ly and Tran dynasty ceramics, and the artifacts of Vietnamese court culture.

The building itself — designed by French architects in the 1920s as the museum of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient — is one of the finest colonial structures in Hanoi, with a blend of Art Deco and Indochinese architectural elements. The museum is less visited than the Ho Chi Minh complex and provides a quieter, more scholarly experience of Vietnamese history.