Hoi An Ancient Town is an exceptionally well-preserved
example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th
century. Its buildings and its street plan reflect the influences, both
indigenous and foreign, that have combined to produce this unique heritage
site.
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
Hoi An Ancient town is located in Viet Nam’s central Quang
Nam Province, on the north bank near the mouth of the Thu Bon River. The
inscribed property comprises 30 ha and it has a buffer zone of 280 ha. It is an exceptionally well-preserved example of
a small-scale trading port active the 15th to 19th centuries which traded widely, both with the countries
of Southeast and East Asia and with the rest of the world. Its decline in the
later 19th century ensured that it has retained its traditional urban tissue to
a remarkable degree.
The town reflects a fusion of indigenous and foreign
cultures (principally Chinese and Japanese with later European influences) that
combined to produce this unique survival.
The town comprises a well-preserved complex of 1,107 timber
frame buildings, with brick or wooden walls, which include architectural
monuments, commercial and domestic vernacular structures, notably an open
market and a ferry quay, and religious buildings such as pagodas and family
cult houses. The houses are tiled and the wooden components are carved with
traditional motifs. They are arranged
side-by-side in tight, unbroken rows along narrow pedestrian streets. There is
also the fine wooden Japanese bridge, with a pagoda on it, dating from the 18th
century. The original street plan, which developed as the town became a port,
remains. It comprises a grid of streets with one axis parallel to the river and
the other axis of streets and alleys set at right angles to it. Typically, the
buildings front the streets for convenient customer access while the backs of
the buildings open to the river allowing easy loading and off-loading of goods
from boats.
The surviving wooden structures and street plan are original
and intact and together present a traditional townscape of the 17th and 18th
centuries, the survival of which is unique in the region. The town continues to
this day to be occupied and function as a trading port and centre of commerce.
The living heritage reflecting the diverse communities of the indigenous
inhabitants of the town, as well as foreigners, has also been preserved and
continues to be passed on. Hoi An Ancient Town remains an exceptionally
well-preserved example of a Far Eastern port.
Criterion (ii): Hoi An is an outstanding material manifestation
of the fusion of cultures over time in an international commercial port.
Criterion (v): Hoi An is an exceptionally well-preserved
example of a traditional Asian trading port.
Integrity
Hoi An Ancient Town has retained its original form and
function as an outstanding example of a well-preserved traditional South East
Asian trading port and commercial centre. It remains complete as a homogenous
complex of traditional wooden buildings, with the original organically
developed street plan, within the town’s original river/seacoast setting.
These original cultural and historic features demonstrate
the town’s outstanding universal value and are present, well-preserved, and
evident within the boundary of the inscribed property, even while it continues
to be occupied and function as a trading port, as well as a popular tourism
destination. As a result of this economic stagnation since the 19th century, it
has not suffered from development and there has not been pressure to replace
the older wooden buildings with new ones in modern materials. This has ensured
that the town has retained its traditional urban tissue and is preserved in a
remarkably intact state.
Authenticity
Hoi An Ancient Town has retained its traditional wooden
architecture and townscape in terms of plot size, materials, façade and roof
line. Its original street plan, with buildings backing on to the river, with
its infrastructure of quays, canals and bridges in its original setting, also
remains. The historic landscape setting is also intact, consisting of a coastal
environment of river, seashore, dunes and islands.
Because most of the buildings were constructed in wood it is
necessary for them to be repaired at intervals, and so many buildings with
basic structures from the 17th and 18th centuries were renewed in the 19th
century, using traditional methods of repair. There is currently no pressure to
replace older buildings with new ones in modern materials such as concrete and
corrugated iron.