Restoration of Trieu Tuong Mausoleum and Trinh Palace: Untangling the knots to revive heritage

VHO - On the morning of September 5, at the construction site of the Trinh Palace Relic Site (Bien Thuong Commune) and Trieu Tuong Temple (Ha Long Commune), the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thanh Hoa inspected and urged the progress of two restoration and embellishment projects of special importance to the history and culture of Thanh Hoa.

According to the documents, the project to restore the Trinh Palace Relic Site was approved for investment by the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee in 2015, adjusted many times and officially re-approved in November 2023, with a total investment of more than 550.7 billion VND.

The Trinh Palace relic site is being restored and embellished. Photo: Nguyen Linh

Of which, the provincial budget allocated over 270 billion VND, Vinh Loc district (old) nearly 71.5 billion VND, the remaining over 209 billion VND depends on socialized sources.

The project started construction in April 2025 and is currently implementing package 6, including the reception area, festival promotion area, lake, stele house, votive paper burning house, toilets, gate system, citadel wall and technical infrastructure.

However, progress is facing many obstacles as the 7,775 ha area has not yet completed site clearance.

In particular, the large difference between compensation land prices and resettlement land prices has caused many households to not agree to relocate.

Resettlement work was interrupted due to changes to the two-tier government model, leading to slow transfer of records and responsibilities between agencies.

Meanwhile, socialized capital has only mobilized more than 45 billion VND, reaching 21.5% of the requirement, putting great pressure on ensuring the completion schedule by 2026.

Leaders of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thanh Hoa inspected and urged the progress of restoration of the Trinh Palace Relic Site. Photo: Nguyen Linh

The project to preserve, restore and promote the value of Trieu Tuong Mausoleum Relic Site Phase 2 was approved by the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Council in 2019, with a total investment of more than 453.2 billion VND.

The provincial budget ensures more than 236 billion VND, Ha Trung district over 26 billion VND, the remaining nearly 195 billion VND is socialized capital.

The project started in April 2025, currently constructing the items of the citadel, traffic road to the parking lot, and technical infrastructure. Up to now, many items have reached 95% of the volume, but the total value has only reached about 16% of the contract.

The biggest problem is still site clearance: more than 1.15 hectares have not been handed over, directly related to the project of renovating and restoring National Highway 217B.

19 households have approved the compensation plan but have not received the money, 5 households have not approved it, while 24 households have received compensation but have not handed over the land.

The project to preserve, restore and promote the value of Trieu Tuong Mausoleum and Temple Relic Site is facing problems with site clearance. Photo: Nguyen Linh

More worryingly, nearly 195 billion VND of socialized capital, accounting for nearly 70% of total construction capital, has not been mobilized yet, putting the plan to complete in 2025 at risk.

Mr. Dang Van Thien, Head of the Economic Department of Ha Long Commune, said: After switching to a two-level government model, the commune only received the project's land clearance documents on August 20. The review results show that there are currently 24 households that cannot be handed over due to lack of funding.

Faced with this reality, the commune will send a document requesting the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to report to the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province to promptly balance and supplement capital, because the local budget is facing many difficulties.

At the same time, the commune has established working groups, increased propaganda, mobilization, resolved complaints and removed obstacles, determined to soon complete the handover of the project site.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Bien Thuong commune admitted that site clearance work in the locality also faced many difficulties.

“The whole commune has hundreds of households whose land is subject to land acquisition, many of whom have not agreed because they think the compensation price is low. Regarding agricultural land, people basically agree, but the most problematic part is residential land and constructions on the land.

The local government is focusing on propaganda, mobilization, publicizing estimates and compensation so that people understand and agree with the State's policy, and soon hand over the site for the project," he shared.

Leaders of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thanh Hoa inspected and urged the progress of conservation, restoration and promotion of the value of Trieu Tuong Mausoleum and Temple Relic Site. Photo: Nguyen Linh

At the inspection, the leaders of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism affirmed: the two projects not only have cultural and spiritual values, associated with the great family and national history, but also open up opportunities for sustainable tourism development for Thanh Hoa.

Therefore, the urgent requirement is to speed up site clearance, remove difficulties in socialized capital and ensure construction quality.

With a total investment of thousands of billions of VND, the success of these two projects not only restores the appearance of the heritage but also contributes to awakening the potential of cultural and spiritual tourism, making Thanh Hoa an attractive destination on the national tourism map.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/trung-tu-lang-mieu-trieu-tuong-va-phu-trinh-go-nut-that-de-di-san-hoi-sinh-166240.html