The Castle of the Rubber Princess

By Saigon On Motorbike

Hidden behind a quiet park at the intersection of Tú Xương and Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, there stands a century-old mansion that few people notice — yet it gleams with timeless grace once the sunlight pierces through the leaves.

This is the Castle of the “Rubber Princess”, a nickname once given to a woman who could easily be seen as one of Vietnam’s earliest female entrepreneurs — or even, in today’s words, a “Shark Tank” pioneer.

🌿 The “White Gold” of Indochina

In the early 20th century, rubber was called white gold. It was precious, difficult to cultivate, and deadly to harvest.
The famous doctor Alexandre Yersin was among the first to successfully acclimatize rubber trees in Vietnam. In 1909, one kilogram of latex could fetch the equivalent of over 3.7 million VND today.

But behind this prosperity lay human suffering.
Rubber workers — mostly poor farmers from the North — were lured south with promises of “light work and high wages.” Yet what awaited them were grueling conditions, toxic ammonia fumes used to prevent coagulation, and the suffocating darkness of plantations that only exhaled carbon dioxide at night.

Few ever returned home alive. As a famous saying of the time went:

“Cao su đi dễ khó về — khi đi trai tráng, khi về bủng beo.”
“Rubber takes you away so easily — young when you leave, hollow when you return.”

👑 The “Rubber Princess”

In 1904, a French noblewoman named Janie Bertin, later known as the Marquise de La Souchère, arrived in Saigon. Five years later, tired of the urban life, she “moved back to the countryside” — founding her own 200-hectare rubber plantation in Long Thành.

Unlike the giant corporations such as Michelin, Janie treated her workers with humanity. She built not only factories, but also hospitals, churches, temples, and schools. She spoke Vietnamese fluently and was deeply respected by the local community.

Her story soon spread across both Indochina and France. The French press even called her “La Princesse du Caoutchouc” — The Rubber Princess.

After her husband passed away in 1919, she returned to Saigon and began constructing her dream residence — the castle that still stands today.

🕍 The Castle in the Garden

Completed in 1927, her mansion remains one of Saigon’s most elegant colonial-era structures.
Surrounded by lush greenery, its Indochine architecture combines Western symmetry with Eastern grace.

Walking under the Corinthian columns, along the curved corridors bathed in sunlight, one feels transported to another century — where marble floors still whisper the echoes of silk gowns and quiet footsteps.

Even now, the castle’s interiors — from staircases to windows — remain remarkably intact, as though time itself forgot this place.

💔 The Fall of a Princess

But her life inside the castle was short-lived.
In 1930, the global economic crisis struck, rubber prices collapsed tenfold, and the Indochinese Bank seized both her plantation and her villa — assets they had long coveted.

Once a symbol of wealth and independence, Janie de La Souchère suddenly found herself bankrupt.
Yet she refused to give up. She worked for real estate firms in Saigon, paid off her debts within six years, and started a new 200-hectare plantation — smaller but fully hers.

A few years later, she returned to France, bringing with her several adopted Vietnamese children. She never came back to Saigon.
The “Rubber Princess” passed away in 1963 — the same year Vietnam itself was entering a new chapter of change.

🌺 A Legacy Forgotten

Today, her castle still stands quietly among the trees — a witness to a time when women dared to build empires and reshape the course of history.

It’s not merely an architectural gem; it’s a story of resilience, grace, and vision — the very essence of Saigon itself.

📍 Location: Intersection of Tú Xương and Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City
🎧 Experience this story on our “Hidden History of Saigon” motorbike tour with Saigon On Motorbike.