Address: 23 Tong Duy Tan St., Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province

Email: huedisan@gmail.com

Tel: (+84.54)3523237

Fax: (+84.54)3526083

Website: www.huedisan.com.vn

www.hueworldheritage.org.vn.

Hue Monuments Conservation Center was founded on June 10, 1982. Directly under the control of Thua Thien Hue Province administratively and of National Cultural Heritage Department (Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism) professionally, Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (hereinafter HMCC) is responsible for managing, preserving, restoring and promoting values of Hue Monuments Complex - Hue World Heritage property, Nha nhac (Hue Court Music)- the Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as well as the attached historicall landscape. 

The Center includes 13 departments and has more than 700 employees, 300 of whom are graduates or post-graduates in such disciplines as architecture, construction, arts, history, literature, foreign languages, law, Han-Nom and so forth. Many staffs have received professional education abroad and have been increasing their knowledge and expertise in scientific research and relic preservation and restoration. 

In past years, with the support of the Vietnamese government together with individuals from national and international organizations, especially those concerned with improving knowkedge and standards, Hue Monuments Conservation Center has made outstanding achievements. Most of relics have been preserved or maintained by various methods in order to prevent from decay or collapse. Many constructions and their infrastructure have been restored or reconstructed. During 1996-2009, total budget for the reconstruction activities was VND $ 400 billion taken from sources of central government, province and international support. The zoning area information was acknowledged publicly or has been adjusted in accordance with current legal regulations and general planning of the province. 

To serve the relic preservation and restoration efficiently, many kinds of traditional handicrafts, namely gilding, painting, plastering, porcelain mosaic, carpentry, manufacture of enamelled bronze items, traditional bronze casting, essential to such restoration, have been revived. Traditional handicraft masters have been supported to preserve and develop their skills in accordance with the needs of preservation orientation and to achieve practical effects and outcomes.

Approximately more than 100 monuments and structures of different levels of preservation have been fully and partly restored; over 20 workshops of both national and international significance were successfully held. In addition, the Center published nearly thirty volumes of books and proceedings; conducted much research of ministry and discipline level that helped to affirm its role and position in the field of preservation; organized hundreds of Nha Nhac performances; mounted tens of exhibitions about Hue’s cultural heritage, both in Vietnam and in overseas countries. Furthermore, the Center compiled two dossiers to submit UNESCO for the recognition of Hue monument complex as a World Cultural Heritage Site (December 11, 1993) and also on Court Music as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (November 7, 2003); collaborated with tens of organisations, institutes and universities in Vietnam and in other countries for the purposes of research and education; and cooperated with international organizations to implement many plans for the high quality conservation and restoration of local relics. Additionally, Hue Monuments Conservation Center has published quarterly newsletters every year. 

Besides the preservation of material heritage, the conservation of intangible heritage artifacts has gradually increased. From the year of establishment (1994), Hue Traditional Royal Theatre of Art presently involves 100 actors, actresses, instrumentalists who were professionally trained and are knowledgeable employees. In addition, the Theatre also cooperates with researchers, prestigious and experienced masters and experts. Dozens of ritual music pieces, typical royal dances and extracts of Tuong have been collected, restored and performed, contributing to safeguarding and revitalizing outstanding traditional artistic values of Vietnam. The Theatre also organized many performances in different domestic and international festivals in order to disseminate the values of Hue royal music.

The socialization of the conservation and presentation of Hue Cultural Heritages has also been remarkably promoted. Understanding of Hue heritage preservation and the enhancement of Hue cultural heritage has been strengthened by competitions to introduce Hue relics to students and the youth. These activities have included children’s drawing competition about Hue relics, activities which encourage people to collect documents together with artifacts relating to relics, the collection of data from artisans and living witnesses who used to work at relic sites. etc. 
Moreover, Hue Monuments Conservation Center has free admission days to increase public cultural enjoyment on the National Day of Socialist Republic of Vietnam (September 2nd) and the first day of every lunar new year. Duyet Thi Duong Royal Theatre organizes daily special traditional performances of well-trained artists to interest tourists and enrich their sight-seeing experience. The Center also has made crucial contributions to the biennial Hue Festival with many programs, such as The Royal Palace By Night inside the Citadel, sacrifical Nam Giao ceremony and so on. 

As a master in cultural heritage preservation and restoration, the Center was assigned the task of calculating the annual income and expenses from relic entrance ticket fees, and permitted to take about 40% of its total turnover (approximately 30-32 billions VND) in addition to capital from the Central Government together with the international financial support for relic preservation and restoration. 

Great efforts on the part of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center have resulted in significant achievements. The number of tourists visiting relic sites increases steadily year by year. While in 1993 the Center received only 243,000 groups of tourists, in 2011 it welcomed nearly 900,000 foreign visitors and more than 1 million domestic tourists which helped to earn over 88 billions VND from entry ticket and services that will be re-invested in the process of conservation and enhancement of heritage’s values.

Hue heritage preservation will not stop with these achievements. Dr. Richard Engelhardt, UNESCO Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific,  has affirmed that “Hue will be eternally preserved”.