First private museum opens in Hà Tĩnh Province

HÀ TĨNH — Over 4,000 artifacts that date back thousands of years ago are on display at the first private museum to open in Bình An Commune in the central province of Hà Tĩnh.

Hoa Cương Museum, which is owned by a lecturer st Quy Nhơn University – Nguyễn Quang Cương, has recently been open to public after three years of construction, covering a total area of 1,500 sq.m.

Besides the valuable artifacts, the museum also has around 3,700 rare books and autographs mostly specialised in agriculture and rural issues.

Thousands of ancient artifacts dating back to the Lý, Trần, Lê and Nguyễn dynasties, together with some from the wars and the subsidy period, are also on display.

The oldest artifacts are a 300 million-year-old fossil wood block and prehistoric stone tools dating back more than 4,000 years.

According to the owner, the idea of preserving artifacts and establishing a museum for his hometown had been nurtured since he was a high school student.

Even after becoming a lecturer at Quy Nhơn University in the central province of Bình Định and working there for 40 years, he was still obsessed with realising his dream.

“I spent billions of dong on building the Hoa Cương Study Promotion House on the site where Hoa Cương Museum is currently situated,” Cương said.

“At that time, the house had nearly 20,000 books of all kinds, sufficient to satisfy the locals’ thirst for knowledge and initiating a study campaign in Bình An Commune and the vicinity.”

Work on the museum was started in 2017 when he was about to retire from his teaching career, with the aim of turning it into a school of tradition for locals in his hometown, particularly the younger generations.

I’d like the museum is expected to become a destination for extracurricular activities for students to learn about history, he said.

“I hope the museum will also offer another cultural destination for visitors to Hà Tĩnh Province,” he added. VNS

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