Toad Garden

You’re now in a small, quiet park with a surprisingly rich past. It dates back to the colonial period and is best known for its central fountain, decorated with four toads spitting water, which earned it the popular nickname “Toad Garden.” What many visitors don’t realize is that this monument is more than just a decorative fountain — it is actually a tomb-fountain, built to hold the remains of Léon Jean Laurent Chavassieux, a senior official of French Indochina who died in Hanoi at the end of the nineteenth century. Over time, this funerary role was largely forgotten, and the garden became a place where people come to walk and relax, do morning exercise, or take a break in the shade. After independence, the park was renamed Diên Hong, after a key moment in Vietnamese history, but locals have kept calling it Con Cóc — “toad” — a nickname passed down from generation to generation. Now that the fountain has been restored and is running again, this place feels like one of the city’s best-kept secrets