A 500-year-old village amid Hanoi’s rush into modernity

Away from Hanoi’s busy roads, the landscape opens into rice fields and rural settlements along the Nhue River. Cuu Village is quiet and relatively untouched by mass tourism, drawing visitors looking for a different side of Hanoi - slower, older and layered with memories.

The village gate, built in the distinctive “quyển thư” style resembling an open book, offers the first glimpse of what lies within. Beyond it are narrow lanes, weathered walls, traditional yin-yang tiled roofs, brick-paved courtyards and old houses marked by time.

What makes Cuu particularly distinctive is the coexistence of two architectural worlds. Traditional northern Vietnamese houses stand alongside two- and three-story villas featuring arched windows, balconies, iron railings and other elements influenced by French architecture in the early 20th century. Many still retain wooden details, tiled roofs, carvings and other traditional features, creating an unusual blend of East and West in a rural northern Vietnamese setting.

Some walls have faded and cracked, exposing old brickwork beneath layers of plaster. Moss covers tiled roofs, while weathered wooden doors and arched entrances bear the marks of decades. Rather than simply making the village look old, these traces have given Cuu a quiet, timeworn character that newly built urban neighbourhoods cannot easily replicate.

From hardship to a “village of the rich”

Cuu’s former prosperity did not happen by chance. In 1921, a major fire destroyed about half of the village, prompting many villagers to leave in search of work. Some found opportunities in Hanoi, where Western-style tailoring was still a relatively new trade in Vietnam. They learned to make suits and dresses for French residents and wealthy Vietnamese customers.

The villagers gradually built a reputation for their craftsmanship and understanding of Western fashion. Tailoring transformed the fortunes of many families, and those who prospered in the city eventually returned home with money, skills and new architectural influences.

From 1920 to 1945, Cuu entered its most prosperous period. Wealthy families commissioned houses that combined traditional Vietnamese layouts and decorative elements with French-inspired architecture. Some featured imposing gates, arched entrances and balconies, while others retained the form of traditional Vietnamese homes with tiled roofs, courtyards and elaborate carvings.

The houses became symbols of a remarkable social transformation. Money earned through tailoring in Hanoi was brought back to the village and invested in homes, helping Cuu earn a reputation as a “village of the rich” and the “No. 1 tailoring village of Hanoi.”

The architecture therefore tells more than a story of aesthetic fusion. It reflects a broader social history - rural people moving to the city, learning new trades, building livelihoods and bringing the fruits of urban life back to their hometown.

That makes Cuu a distinctive window into the social transformation of Hanoi in the early 20th century.

A living heritage slowly fading

Today, Cuu still has houses that make visitors stop and look. But not all have survived intact.

Many villas dating from the 1930s and 1940s remain, yet time and the lack of maintenance have taken their toll. Some have deteriorated, others have been altered or replaced, and some are closed for long periods as families move elsewhere for work. Recent local conservation efforts have focused on preserving these architectural remnants and their historical value.

The changes extend beyond architecture.

Tailoring, once the source of the village’s prosperity, no longer plays the same role in local life. Some families still work in sewing and garment production, but younger generations have many more career choices and are less dependent on the traditional trade.

Modern life is also reshaping the village. Roads are being upgraded, new houses are appearing and residents naturally want more convenient living conditions. Preserving old houses while allowing people to continue living comfortably in them is therefore becoming increasingly difficult.

That is the dilemma facing historic villages: preserving a house is not simply about saving its walls; it is also about preserving the conditions that allow people to continue living in it.

Cuu is therefore more than a collection of attractive old villas. Its value lies in the wider living fabric of the village - its gate, lanes, communal spaces, wells, homes, tailoring traditions and family stories passed down through generations.

Local authorities have also sought to connect Cuu with neighbouring craft villages to create broader heritage and cultural tourism routes. Cuu has increasingly been presented as a “living museum” where history and architecture remain embedded in everyday life rather than displayed behind glass.

In the early morning, a cyclist moves slowly past an old wall. A wooden door opens onto a courtyard. Sunlight filters through the trees and falls across weathered plaster, while the sounds of everyday village life carry through the narrow lanes.

Amid the rapid transformation of Hanoi, places like Cuu are more than destinations for nostalgia. They are living fragments of the city’s past, where old walls, narrow lanes and weathered homes still carry stories from another era. As the capital moves forward, preserving such places means preserving not only their architecture, but the memories and human stories that give them meaning.

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