Phu Van Lau is located in the Phu Hoa ward, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue province. Phu Van Lau is near the northern bank of Huong River, belongs the complex of Hue ancient capital: Thai Hoa palace – Ngo Mon – Ky Dai – Phu Van Lau - Nghinh Luong Dinh – Huong Giang – Ngu Binh.
This place listed the announcement of court for the public. It often is the mandate of King or outcome of competition. In addition, this place also held many events for country with the representation of King, cadres and the public.
At the old address of Phu Van Lau, the court built small structure “Bang Dinh”. In 1819, in the reign of Gia Long, the structure was replaced by the two-stories building with the new name “Phu Van Lau”
In 1843, Thieu Tri King built the stone stele house on the right of building to carve this poem “Huong Giang hieu phiem” (To go for a row on the Huong River)
For nearly 190 years, Phu Van Lau was restored about 10 times, however, the architecture still retains until now.
Phu Van Lau has a height of 11.67 meters with 16 dark red columns (4 columns throughout entire 2 stories, 12 small columns), the floor is surrounded by banister system. The space downstairs is completely empty. The second floor, four sides has “do ban”- one kind of silk painting frame with wood banister.In 1974, people replaced some composition by concrete one.
Phu Van Lau is the beautiful art of Nguyen dynasty, a unique heritage of Hue ancient architecture complex.
