The Kham Yart Palace Hall

The Kham Yart Palace Hall is a brick ruin standing within the grounds of Wat Pho Thong in Ang Thong’s Pho Thong district — four walls and a set of arched doorways, all that remains of a residence tied to one of Ayutthaya’s last kings.

History

The hall is associated with King Uthumphon, the 32nd monarch of Ayutthaya’s Ban Phlu Luang dynasty, who took the throne in 1758 and abdicated after just ten days to enter the monkhood — a rare case of a Siamese king voluntarily giving up power. He’s remembered by the name Khun Luang Hawat (“the king who went to the monastery”), and this hall, within Wat Pho Thong’s grounds, is where local history places his retreat.

King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) passed through the area more than a century later, during a 15-28 October 1908 trip along the Makhamthao River that also took him through Chainat, Suphanburi, Ayutthaya and Singburi. His own travel journal from the trip records the visit, which is the basis for the site’s association with his reign — though the hall’s construction predates him by roughly a century and a half.

What remains

Only the four brick walls of the original structure still stand, roughly 10 by 20 metres, raised on a brick platform. The doorways and window openings carry pointed arches in a style that became popular in Siamese architecture during King Narai’s reign in the 17th century — a detail that places the hall’s construction well before Uthumphon’s time, likely as a royal rest house built for an earlier king’s visits to the area. There’s no roof, no interior fittings, and no reconstruction — it’s presented as a ruin, registered as a historic monument by the Fine Arts Department.

Insider Tip: There’s little signage on site, so the history is easy to miss if you don’t already know it — read up before you go, since the ruin itself is a quiet, roofless brick shell rather than a restored building.

Watch out: This is an unstaffed historic site with no gate or ticket booth. There’s nothing to buy and no facilities beyond parking, so bring water if you’re visiting in the middle of the day.

Practical

The hall sits inside the Wat Pho Thong complex, and the reclining Buddha at Wat Khun Inthapramun — another site tied to the same royal-era history — is a short drive away if you’re covering Pho Thong district’s historic sites in one trip. Wider context on the province is on the Ang Thong hub page.