Viên Ngoại Communal House (Trung Communal House)

Viên Ngoại Communal House (also called Quán Ông Ba) belongs to Viên Ngoại village, Ứng Thiên commune, Hanoi City. According to legends, Han-Nom documents, and artifacts still preserved here, the relic worships four Great Kings from the Hùng King and Thục An Dương Vương periods.

1. Viên Ngoại Communal House: faces north, with its back to the bank of the Đáy River. In front of the communal-house yard are the ceremonial gate system, screen wall, and low walls enclosing the yard. The ceremonial gate is formed by ornamental pillars and connecting low walls; the screen wall is decorated with a scroll, kneeling elephants, and pine, chrysanthemum, bamboo, and plum motifs. On the bodies of the ornamental pillars are couplets praising the communal-house scenery.

Across the wide brick-paved yard is the Main Hall, consisting of three adjoining buildings in the double-eave style. Outermost is the Dai Bai (Great Worship Hall), built in 1919; its frame is made of four precious woods, mainly squared, planed smooth, and molded. It has three bays and two wings, with closed gable walls and tay ngai arms. The Dai Bai floor is 12.5m long, 10m wide, and 0.55m above the yard. On both gable sides are two low walls extending to two ornamental pillars in the communal-house yard, creating imposing tay ngai arms. The ornamental pillars have large bases and narrowed necks. Their tops are decorated with lantern niches and square blocks. The pillar bodies have raised moldings and couplets. The two low walls have reliefs of two generals. The Dai Bai roof trusses are made in two styles:

- The two trusses in the central bay are made in the “upper rường-nách, giá chiêng, lower kẻ” style. A slender upper beam is mortised through the tops of two main columns. On top of the upper beam are two round posts supporting a pig-belly rường. This rường supports a boat-shaped block under the upper ridge beam via a cushion block. From both sides of the posts, paired short rường extend out to support roof purlins. The hidden posts, short rường, and support blocks are all made of precious wood and interlock with continuous mortise joints. From the main column body to the military column top are one xà nách and one kẻ connecting the two columns through mortises cut in the column tops; above the kẻ is a cushion dong supporting the roof purlins.

- The two trusses on the gable sides are made in the “giá chiêng and short rường” style. The roof-truss section has a structure similar to the two main trusses; from the main columns to the military columns is an interconnected rường-nách system. The entrance to Dai Bai is at the front military column row. From this front military column, a mortised xà nách extends to the eave column top, so the eave rường-nách system leans on and supports four eave purlins, creating a 2m-wide veranda. The column base stones are made of blue stone, square below and round above, with dành ấm molded edges, 32cm high. The columns are slender, round, and đòng đòng in shape. The main column circumference is 1.1m. The Dai Bai floor is paved with Bát Tràng bricks. The two gables have bức thuận walls. The rear wall is brick, with three arched doors into Trung Cung.

Trung Cung of the communal house is a three-bay building with closed gable walls, its floor 20cm higher than the Dai Bai floor. The Trung Cung trusses are uniformly made in the “rường nách, giá chiêng, hidden posts on quá giang” style, resting on two columns close to the wall. The building frame is squared, planed smooth, and tightly fitted. This is where the Trung Cung altar is arranged with artifacts such as horizontal plaques, couplets, long swords, eight treasures, worship thrones, and four bronze incense burners engraved and cast with intricate patterns.

Innermost are the three bays of Cung Cam (Forbidden Palace), raised with two front roof tiers. The trusses in Cung Cam are made in the kèo kẻ quá giang style resting on the wall. From the middle of the front wall, a kẻ projects to rest on the eave column top, supporting the lower roof tier. The entrance to Cung Cam is in the ancient style: the central door has four panel leaves, with two open doors on either side.

The central bay of Cung Cam is a platform measuring 1.85m x 2m and 0.8m high. On the platform is an altar shrine with a mai cua-curved roof, its front frieze carved with two dragons facing each other. Inside are two thrones and tablets of the Saint.

The roof tiles of Viên Ngoại Communal House are thin native tiles. The ridge and edge are decorated with bờ đinh. The ends of the Dai Bai ridge are decorated with blocks; at the center of the Hau Cung ridge are a fire sun and two leaf dragons (Makara). On both gables of Hau Cung are reliefs of five bats representing the five blessings. On the wall between the two roof tiers are decorative panels of dragons and unicorns in raised relief. In the middle are three characters “Trùng Quang Thường” with ceramic inlay.

At Viên Ngoại Communal House, several artifacts are still preserved, such as: one Thần phủ book “Thục An Dương Vương triều lưỡng vị thiên thần giáng thế”; three copies of royal edicts from various dynasties; seven horizontal plaques and great characters, among which notable ones include: the plaque “Thượng Đẳng tối linh” made in the Lê Cảnh Hưng era, its upper frieze carved with two dragons facing the moon; the plaque “Đức phối càn khôn” made in the scroll style with a surrounding frieze carved with dragons, clouds, and four palanquins, three of which are bát cống palanquins....