It is the summer palace of General Decoux or called Governor’s Palace, where Decoux lived and worked every summer, from May to October.
Located 1539,5 meters high on a hill covered with evergreen pines in Tran Hung Daoo Street, 2 kilometers southeast of Dalat Center, The Second Palace, built in 1933, was a magnificent palace of 25 rooms decorated luxuriously and elegantly. Standing here, tourists are able to see Xuan Huong Lake through pine leaves about one kilometers away.
When the Governor General’s Office had been transferred here, Dcoux had solid underground hideouts built to provide absolute safety for himself and his family. This tunnel is connected with a wine cellar of 1.5 meters wide and over 1 meter high, and has many narrow concrete side passages.
Under Ngo Dinh Diem regime, The Second Palace became a holiday place for Ngo Dinh Nhu family. In 1964, when holding temporary political power, General Nguyen Khánh chose it as his head-quarters on holidays. And ordered the building of more secret tunnels leading up to the hill sides in the southeast and northwest so that he could easily ‘escape’ when an over throw might take place.