Quảng Trị () is a
district-level town in
Quảng Trị Province in the
North Central Coast
Bắc Trung Bộ (literally North Central Region, and often translated as North Central Coast) is one of the regions of Vietnam. It consists of six provinces: Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Thừa Thiên–Hu ...
region of
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. It is second of two municipalities in the province after the provincial capital
Đông Hà
Đông Hà () is the capital of Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam. Đông Hà is situated at the crossroads of National Highway 1A and Route 9, part of the East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC). It lies on the North–South Railway (Reunificatio ...
.
History
The Sino-Vietnamese name Quảng Trị (廣治) was given by Vietnamese Confucian administrators.
A major feature of the town is the Quảng Trị Citadel, built in 1824, as a military bastion during the 4th year of the reign of
Minh Mạng. It is an example of
Vauban architecture and it later became the administrative head office of the
Nguyễn dynasty in Quảng Trị Province (1809–1945).
Quảng Trị was an area of early Catholic presence and by 1913, the nearest railway station to the starting point of the
La Vang pilgrimage.
[''Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation'' Charles Keith - 2012 -- Page 164 "... the La Vang pilgrimage were new modes of travel, communication, and publicity. In 1913, the future bishop Hồ Ngọc Cẩn wrote an article in Nam Kỳ Địa Phận giving directions to pilgrims coming to La Vang on the newly built colonial railway.... get off (Quảng trị), what roads to take to get to Cổ Vưu (the starting point of the pilgrimage), what sights to see along the way ...]
During the Vietnam War, when the province was the South's border with North Vietnam, it suffered a
major attack in the January 1968
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the force ...
and it was the only South Vietnamese provincial capital to be
captured by the North Vietnamese forces in the 1972
Easter Offensive
The Easter Offensive, also known as the 1972 spring–summer offensive ('' vi, Chiến dịch Xuân–Hè 1972'') by North Vietnam, or the red fiery summer (') as romanticized in South Vietnamese literature, was a military campaign conducted b ...
before being
recaptured in September 1972.
Notable residents
*
Hieu Van Le
Hieu Van Le, ( vi, Lê Văn Hiếu; born 1 January 1954) was the 35th governor of South Australia, in office from 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2021. He served as the state's lieutenant-governor from 2007 to 2014. He also served as chair of the ...
, Governor of the Australian state of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, was born here in 1954.
References
External links
The 1968 Tet Offensive Battles of Quang Tri City and Hue
Districts of Quảng Trị province
County-level towns in Vietnam
{{QuangTri-geo-stub