Hotel Continental, Saigon

The Hôtel Continental is a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was named after the Hôtel Continental in Paris, and is located in District 1, the central business district of the city. The hotel is situated on Đồng Khởi Street by the Saigon Opera House and was built in 1880 during the French colonial period. The hotel has undergone refurbishments over the years, whilst still maintaining the essence of its original architecture and style. The hotel is owned by the state-owned Saigon Tourist.

In the old days, Saigon's roads were simply named by ordinal numbers. Starting from the Saigon River bank, Đồng Khởi was the Sixth Road. In 1865, the French Commander Admiral De La Grandiere renamed these roads and Sixth Road became Rue Catinat, a bustling place. Across the street from the future Continental site, the first foundations and floors for factories were built, the first one for Denis Frere. Next was the first drugstore in Saigon, the Solinere Pharmaceutical which opened in 1865.

In 1878, Pierre Cazeau, a home-appliance and construction material manufacturer, started building the Hotel Continental with the purpose of providing the French traveler a French style of luxury accommodation after a long cruise to the new continent. This project took 2 years, and in 1880 the Hotel Continental was inaugurated.

In the same period, many of Saigon's major colonial buildings were constructed including the Notre Dame Cathedral on Rue Catinat completed in 1880, the Postal and Telecom Service on Rue Catinat completed in 1891, and the Hotel de Ville completed in 1898.

The hotel was refurbished in 1892 by Mr Grosstephan. In 1911, the hotel was sold to Duke Montpensier. In 1930, the hotel had a new owner, Mathieu Francini, a reputed gangster from Corsica, and later his son Philippe who ran the hotel until the Communist takeover in April 1975.

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