Quảng Trị

This article is about the town. For the province, see Quảng Trị Province.

Quảng Trị Thị xã Quảng Trị
Town (Class-4)
Quảng Trị Town
The Quảng Trị Citadel built in 1824
Seal
Quảng Trị
Coordinates: 16°44′49″N 107°11′40″E
Country	Vietnam
Region	North Central Coast
Province	Quảng Trị
Established	16 September 1989
Area
• Town (Class-4)	74 km2 (29 sq mi)
• Urban	8.27 km2 (3.19 sq mi)
Population  (2019)
• Town (Class-4)	23,356
• Density	315/km2 (820/sq mi)
• Urban	19,390
• Urban density	2,300/km2 (6,100/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+7 (ICT)

Quảng Trị (listen^ⓘ) is a district-level town in Quảng Trị Province in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. It is second of two municipalities in the province after the provincial capital Đông Hà.

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.

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 and it was the only South Vietnamese provincial capital to be captured by the North Vietnamese forces in the 1972 Easter Offensive before being recaptured in September 1972. During the Vietnam War the city became what some regard as the most bombed city in the world.

Notable residents

• Hieu Van Le, Governor of the Australian state of South Australia, was born here in 1954.

External links

• The 1968 Tet Offensive Battles of Quang Tri City and Hue