Phra Sumen Fort and Santichaiprakan Park

The white octagonal Phra Sumen tower is one of the two surviving bastions of the city wall with which Rama the First enclosed his new capital at the end of the eighteenth century. The fort stands where the Banglamphu canal runs into the Chao Phraya, and it once held the bend of the river under its guns. The wall around it was taken apart as early as the reign of Rama the Fifth, and on the freed ground the small Santichaiprakan park was laid out, with a lawn and a wooden sala right by the water. The waterfront gives a view of the Rama the Eighth cable-stayed bridge, and in the evening people come here to practise tai chi and watch the sunset. From the fort it is two steps to Khao San Road and the museum of the history of the Banglamphu quarter.

On the map