The blaze erupted on Wednesday afternoon, tearing through the hundred-year-old building built by the Southeast Asian nation’s last ruling Nguyen dynasty, VnExpress newspaper reported.
The academy building is part of a complex of Hue monuments inscribed on the UN cultural agency’s World Heritage List in 1993. It housed a collection of artifacts from Vietnam's war against its French colonial rulers.
The flames reportedly destroyed many of the treasures stored inside after part of the roof collapsed. Police are investigation the cause of the fire.