Old photos of Da Lat

Da Lat lies on the Langbian plateau in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, at an altitude that gives it a cool, temperate climate. The area was inhabited by Lat and other highland peoples when the Swiss-French doctor Alexandre Yersin explored the plateau in the 1890s and recommended it as a site for a hill station. The French colonial administration developed the town from the early 1900s as a resort and health retreat for officials from Saigon and Hanoi, with villas in styles recalling the French provinces, a railway with a cog section climbing from the coast, an artificial lake, a golf course and the Lang Bian Palace hotel.

Between the wars the town was planned as a garden city and was at one point considered as a possible administrative capital of French Indochina. The last emperor, Bao Dai, kept a summer palace here. Da Lat was largely spared fighting during the Vietnam War, and many of its colonial villas, the railway station and the Domaine de Marie convent survive. It became known for its flower gardens, market vegetables and pine forests, and remains a popular destination for Vietnamese honeymooners and tourists.

Old photographs of Da Lat typically show the lake and the Lang Bian Palace hotel, French villas among pines, the railway station, the central market and highland villagers.

What the photos show

The 206 photographs of Da Lat on PlaceWas span 5 decades, from 1925 to 2025. 5 of them were taken before 1980; the other 201 are recent views of the same streets and landmarks.36 spots were photographed more than once, so you can compare the same street, square or building across the years.206 of the photos carry a written caption explaining what is in the frame. Every picture is pinned to the place it was taken, so the map below shows where the photographers stood.