Can Tho has more than 70 ancient houses, but Binh Thuy area alone, located in the southwest of Can Tho river mouth, accounts for half of them. The most famous of these is Binh Thuy ancient house.
Hundred years old house
Binh Thuy ancient house, also known as Duong family temple - Duong family shrine, or Binh Thuy orchid garden (collected by the 5th generation descendant, Mr. Duong Van Ngon, who often organizes orchid growing). Either way, it is accurate with this rare ancient house that is still quite intact and is one of the most famous in the South.
This is also the "film set" of many films, typically The Lover (1992) by veteran director Jean Jacques Annaud (France), The Beauty of the Western Capital by director Le Cung Bac...
The house was first built by Mr. Duong Van Vi (the third generation of the Duong family here) in 1870 with wood and tile roof. After more than 30 years of use, he had it rebuilt. In 1904, after his death, his youngest son, Duong Chan Ky, continued this work, and it was not completed until around 1911.
When Mr. Duong Chan Ky was looking for a good carpenter to build a house, he heard that Mr. Ba Nghia was a famous carpenter who built beautiful houses. People said that he was originally from China, and had wandered here from Quang Nam to practice his profession.
The 5-room house is 20m wide, covers an area of 352m2 in an area of nearly 8,000 square meters, and is a unique architectural work. The entire system of trusses, balconies, and 16 large columns 4-6 meters high are connected by delicate mortise and tenon joints, without using a single nail or iron pin.
Not only Mr. Ba Nghia, Mr. Duong Chan Ky also hired carpenters from the Central region to carve furniture for his house. The sofas are over a hundred years old, and the iridescent mother-of-pearl carvings still stand out. The panels are meticulously carved, vivid with many geometrical motifs, animals and plants familiar in life, still making the architectural world admire.
The mark of Quang Nam craftsmen?
This ancient house was once a measure of architectural and interior art. After more than a hundred years, through many vicissitudes, memories of our ancestors have now become lines and patterns on the doors, slats, roof tiles, beams, columns, door frames, etc.
At the end of the year, I returned to visit the old house. I wanted to confirm whether the Quang Nam workers had built the house. Several people who were helping to look after the house confirmed that this was true, because they had heard the elderly people who had been in contact with the owner of this house say so.
I suddenly remembered the books “History of the Southern Land Exploration” and “Random Thoughts on Southern Architecture”. In them, it was written that, during the exploration period, the majority of the population in the area were farmers, there was no professional specialization, and no craft villages had appeared. Therefore, the homeowner often had to bring in workers from the Central region, especially workers from Hue and Quang Nam, to sponsor their travel and accommodation expenses for many years to carry out the meticulous and elaborate works.
This construction activity contributed to the exchange process between the Central region and the new land of the South. The movements brought continuous cultural, economic and technical influences between the lands. In the places where the Central carpenters settled and practiced their trade, they taught the techniques to the new generation, contributing to the formation of wood craft villages in the Southern localities later.
Among the real and fake anecdotes of the house, this is the "hypothesis" that I want to believe the most!
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/nha-co-binh-thuy-luu-dau-phuong-tho-xu-quang-3148176.html
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