gallery champa building and architecture2

Architecturally speaking, Phnom Penh is a comparatively new city. Prior to the late 19th century the city was but a few pagodas and clusters of wooden structures along the riverfront. Almost every currently existing structure in Phnom Penh was built after the beginning of the French colonial period in 1863. The oldest part of the city stretches from the Wat Phnom area south to the Royal Palace, and is also where you will find most of the surviving colonial era structures.

‘Chinese shophouse’ style buildings dominate the city, characterized by deep narrow apartments composed of a combined ground-floor businessfront and upstairs residence. Standing in distinctive difference, European influenced colonial period structures are interspersed through the central city. At the height of the colonial period Phnom Penh was reputed to be the most beautiful city in French Indochina - recalling Paris in its manicured parks and picturesque boulevards lined with ornate villas. Though sometimes difficult to see through the grime and disrepair of years of hardship and neglect, much of that beauty still exists.