Hue - Citadel

The main attraction in Hue is the ancient Citadel, built by the conscription of 30,000 subjects of Gia Long, first emperor of the Nguyen dynasty beginning in 1804; eventually, the number of conscripts working on the complex reached 80,000. It was the capital of the dynasty until the abdication of the last emperor, Bao Dai, in 1945. A catastrophic fire in 1947 destroyed much of it and bombing during the Vietnamese war took its toll, as well. Still, what remains is imposing and beautiful: