Hue served as the capital of Viet Nam from 1802 – 1945 under the 13 emperors of the Nguyen dynasty and is deemed to be the Viet Nam city of culture and the religious and cultural centre. The original citadel city was built in 1687 with the present day citadel being named the citadel city after the expulsion of the Tay Son rebels in 1802 after their occupation since 1786.  Nguyen Anh crowned himself emperor and thus formed the Nguyen dynasty (in name anyway as the French were really pulling the strings).

Hue is around 15km inland from the South China Sea and is bisected by the Perfume River (Huong Giang or Song Huong depending on your origin).   The citadel is 10 km around its perimeter and has walls over 2 metres thick, the purple city is within the main Citadel, a sort of Citadel within a Citadel and the 6 metre wall runs around its 2.5 km perimeter and like Beijing was reserved for the emperor

Sights to see around the citadel are the flag tower; this has a 37 metre flag pole that can be seen from many locations in the citadel city and for me helped me not get too lost.  Useless information time; after the Tet offensive the Viet Cong had the National Liberation Front flag flying for just over 3 weeks.  The nine holy cannons, I laughed when I saw that description on them and thought of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with the 'holy hand grenade', use of religion in war and destruction is a bit of an oxymoron, but that is maybe just me.  Anyway these cannons are still ‘guarding’ the flag pole even although their payload is now old coke cans and water bottles stuffed up the barrels.  4 of the cannons represent the 4 seasons and the other 5 represent the 5 elements: metal, wood, water, fire and soil.