Nhạn Tháp Pagoda

Legend has it that previously in Song Phượng Commune, Đan Phượng District (now Đan Phượng Commune - Hanoi City), there was a plot of land shaped like a swallow. Local people built a temple and pagoda on that land. Since then the village was named Tháp Thượng Village, the temple was named Tháp Thượng Temple, and the pagoda was named Nhạn Tháp (commonly called Nhạn Tháp Temple and Pagoda). Currently, in front of this relic complex, two wells remain, which ancient tradition says are the eyes of the swallow.
The relic complex of Tháp Thượng Temple and Nhạn Tháp Pagoda was originally an ancient site. Research of bibliographic records and historical sources indicates that along the Đáy River in Đan Phượng District, before the rearrangement, it may have been one of the defense lines of the Hai Bà Trưng uprising.
Nhạn Tháp Pagoda and Tháp Thượng Temple both face west, slightly south, overlooking the Đáy River (also called Hát River and, according to Chinese records, Chu Diên River).
According to folk sources, Nhạn Tháp Temple and Pagoda were built quite early, though the exact period is unknown. Through many historical events and the rain and sun of time, the temple and pagoda were heavily damaged, and the ancient structures are no longer intact. To preserve and pass on the precious heritage left by their ancestors, the villagers of Tháp Thượng and Song Phượng contributed labor and money to rebuild the temple as it is today.
Currently, the temple still preserves many precious relics, such as 20 royal edicts, the earliest from the Lê dynasty (1787). The stone stele system includes the earliest stele, a stele for the communal patron deity, made on an auspicious day in the third month of the Giáp Ngọ year, the 35th Cảnh Hưng era of the Lê dynasty (1774), which suggests that the Nhạn Tháp Temple and Pagoda relic may have been built before that.
The Tháp Thượng Temple and Nhạn Tháp Pagoda relic complex was ranked by the Ministry of Culture as a National-level historical-cultural relic under Decision No. 2003/QĐ-BVH dated 15/11/1991. Over time, the relic has seriously deteriorated: roof tiles are displaced and broken, the roof leaks, and columns and wooden structural components are termite-damaged and no longer ensure load-bearing capacity, so restoration and embellishment must be carried out to preserve the relic.