BẾN THÀNH MARKET
How has Bến Thành Market grown over the years?
Even though the market was not completed until early 1914,
the name existed long before.
In the past, the market was situated in the port area of the
Bến Nghé River, now the Sài Gòn River, at the end of Nguyễn Huệ and Hàm Nghi
Streets. At that time, those two streets were two streams. The market faced the
Gia Định Citadel. In Vietnamese “bến” means “wharf” and “thành” means
“citadel”, hence “Bến Thành Market”.
Đại Nam Nhất Thống Chí Book of Quốc Sử quán of Nguyễn
Dynasty described the Bến Thành Market in its Vol. V, p. 228: “The market is
located on the river bank. … there are lots of shops and restaurants.
Tiled-roof houses line the streets. Goods keep arriving. Merchant boats
continuously come and go.
“However, the market was less busy and many streets were
destroyed between 1833 and 1835, when Lê Văn Khôi led a rebellion against the
royal court.
The market suffered its greatest setback when the French and
their Spanish allies took control of Sài Gòn in 1859.
The French, who wanted to turn the market into a river port,
forced the traders to move to the site of the current Banking School No. 3,
next to the waterway by Vai Market.
Laborers later filled the waterway, which became Nguyễn Huệ
Street. The new market was simple: Its shops were huts made from iron poles
supporting tile roofs but had no walls.
The city center remained marshland until the end of the
nineteenth century. Many current streets such as Nguyễn Huệ, Hàm Nghi, Lê Lợi,
and Pasteur were waterways. In 1912, Sài Gòn mayor Eugene Cuniac had the
Boresses Swamp filled in order to build the Ben Thanh Market.
Brossard and Maupin, a construction company, built the new
market on 12.000 square meters of land. The local authorities held a big
ceremony when construction was finished in March 1914.
Coach stations on either side of the river served the
customers. Passengers going to the western provinces left from the station on
Schroeder Street (now Phan Chu Trinh), while those traveling to the eastern
provinces departed from Vienot Street (now Phan Bội Châu).
A nearby railway station served passengers going to Chợ Lớn
Market or Lái Thiêu (in today’s Bình Dương Province). The Bến Thành Market
bustled all day as people came and went and bought and sold.
Every day, as Sài Gòn grows more crowded, Bến Thành Market
seems to become smaller. Some people want to demolish the current building and
replace it with a huge modern, business-and-shopping center. However, the
majority of people in Sài Gòn do not want to lose their familiar symbol: Bến
Thành Market
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