Explore Hanoi

The Temple of Literature is a temple to Confucius in Hanoi, founded in 1070 under Emperor Lý Thánh Tông. From 1076 it housed the Imperial Academy, Vietnam's first national university. Five walled courtyards lead past the Khuê Văn Các pavilion to stone stelae that list the doctoral laureates of the imperial examinations.

St. Joseph's Cathedral is the Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of Hanoi, on a small square west of Hoàn Kiếm Lake. Consecrated in 1886 on the site of the former Báo Thiên Pagoda, the Gothic Revival church has two square towers 31 metres high and a façade modelled on Notre-Dame de Paris. Outside Mass, visitors enter through a side door.

Ngọc Sơn Temple stands on Jade Islet in the north of Hoàn Kiếm Lake in Hanoi and is reached by the red wooden Thê Húc bridge. Built in the early 19th century for the scholar deity Văn Xương and other figures, it later added the 13th-century general Trần Hưng Đạo. The Pen Tower and the Ink Slab gate stand at its entrance.

The One Pillar Pagoda is a small Buddhist shrine to the bodhisattva Quan Âm in Hanoi's Ba Đình district, first built by Emperor Lý Thái Tông in 1049. Its wooden hall rests on a single stone pillar rising from a square lotus pond. Blown up in 1954, it was rebuilt in 1955 to its earlier design and belongs to the Diên Hựu pagoda complex.

Quán Thánh Temple is a Taoist temple near West Lake, dedicated to Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ, guardian of the north and one of the four guardian temples of old Thăng Long. Founded in the 11th century and restored many times, its present form dates largely from 1836–1838; the main hall holds a bronze statue of Trấn Vũ cast in 1677.

Trấn Quốc Pagoda is a Buddhist temple on a small island near the south-eastern shore of West Lake in Hanoi, linked to the road by a causeway. Founded in the 6th century beside the Red River, it moved to its present site in 1615. The grounds hold monks' stupas, a bodhi tree given by India's president in 1959 and an 11-storey tower built in 1998.