We are on a holiday in Vietnam, in the capital Hanoi. The country was under French rule from 1890 to 1954, there is a French quarter in Hanoi complete with Opera, Central Bank, European-style wide treelined boulevards. The Vietnamese do not care much in remembering the period, all official buildings have been rebadged (mostly with the same use as before) with no mention of the French past.
This is why we were surprised to see “RF” for “République Française” on the front of the building of the “Institut du Radium de Hanoi” also written in French. This is the only building where the French name was kept that we could notice (apart from hotels). The intention at the time was to cure cancers using radiotherapy under the form of radiations from actual radium metal.
It is being refurbished/redeveloped (see pic); a builder waved us in. It does not seem to have changed since completion in 1929 (building started in 1923) , and although some rooms were vaguely occupied, looked derelict enough to qualify. Certainly no cancer cure or research was taking place when we visited.
So here it is, the Institut du Radium de Hanoi, fka Institut Marie Curie, her bust is in the main staircase still. It looks like it will lose its name on the frontispice when redeveloped. For now it looks as good as planned 100 years ago.
This is why we were surprised to see “RF” for “République Française” on the front of the building of the “Institut du Radium de Hanoi” also written in French. This is the only building where the French name was kept that we could notice (apart from hotels). The intention at the time was to cure cancers using radiotherapy under the form of radiations from actual radium metal.
It is being refurbished/redeveloped (see pic); a builder waved us in. It does not seem to have changed since completion in 1929 (building started in 1923) , and although some rooms were vaguely occupied, looked derelict enough to qualify. Certainly no cancer cure or research was taking place when we visited.
So here it is, the Institut du Radium de Hanoi, fka Institut Marie Curie, her bust is in the main staircase still. It looks like it will lose its name on the frontispice when redeveloped. For now it looks as good as planned 100 years ago.
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