Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts

The Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts is the country's principal art museum and the best place in Hanoi to follow the story of Vietnamese art from prehistory to the present. It was established in June 1966, is accredited by the International Council of Museums, and holds a collection of around 20,000 objects, of which some 2,000 are on display across two buildings. Among them are a number of pieces designated as national treasures. It is the larger of the country's two main fine arts museums, the other being in Ho Chi Minh City, and is the natural starting point for anyone curious about how Vietnamese art developed.

The museum occupies a handsome building on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street that was built in 1937 as a boarding house for Catholic girls and had been abandoned before the painter Nguyen Do Cung chose it as the museum's home in 1963. The building next door, at number 65, was once an artists' colony. The colonial-era building is part of the appeal, and the museum spreads over about 3,000 square metres.

The displays cover Vietnamese art from ancient times to the modern period, so a visit gives a broad overview before you narrow your focus. The modern galleries are particularly revealing about Vietnam's recent history, as much of the twentieth-century work deals with national defence, sacrifice and patriotism, painted during the wars against France and the United States. A smaller group of late twentieth and early twenty-first century paintings, including some abstract work, shows how artists moved on from those themes.

Allow around two hours for a proper visit, or an hour if you focus on the modern galleries. As an indoor sight it is a sensible choice for a hot or wet afternoon. Check the official website before you go for current opening times and any temporary exhibitions.

The museum stands about 250 metres from the Temple of Literature, so the two are easily combined in a morning or afternoon. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long are a short taxi ride to the north, which makes this corner of the city a good base for a day of history and art.