Due to prior flight delays, our guide had to make up lost time by cramming several visits in the day we arrived in Hue. So by the time we got to the tour of the Citadel we were already a bit tired & not really up to a rushed tour of this rambling complex.
It immediately reminded me of the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, but on a much smaller scale. Built early in the 19th century, it was largely destroyed in 1968 in the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam (American?) war. Needless to say there is a lot of restoration in place.
The Chinese influence in the layout as well as the style of the Citadel is immediately obvious.
I particularly liked the structure in the To Mieu Temple Complex that looked like Giles Gilbert Scott's design for the early telephone box (see below).
