The famous central Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral, built by French colonists between 1863 and 1880, is one of Vietnam's architectural marvels. Located in the city center, incredibly beautiful and magnificent, it has always attracted many people.
Constructed entirely from materials imported from France, it is one of the most popular tourist spots in Ho Chi Minh City (better known as Saigon), along with Ben Thanh Market and the Reunification Palace. The official name of the church is "Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception".
Location
Situated between two traffic streams, the Cathedral is located in the center of District 1 of the city of Saigon. The streets are always full of traffic and street vendors scurry about.
Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral (pictured below) is within walking distance of the city's central post office and Diamond Plaza shopping mall. Nearby is a park where you can walk in the direction of the Reunification Palace.
Popularity
Inside the building itself, the atmosphere is austere, but the church comes alive during worship. In addition, it is a great place for wedding photo shoots. And not only inside. Around the red brick building, there are often groups of photographers with wedding couples, brides in European white dresses, Asian red dresses or traditional Vietnamese red dao.
Many tourists head straight for Saigon's Notre Dame Cathedral, or Notre Dame de Saigon as the French called it, as the city's first attraction, and for good reason.
It's hard to miss the twin towers jutting 60 meters into the sky.
Name
Initially, the most prominent sacred building in Ho Chi Minh City was called the Saigon Church.
In 1959, Bishop Pham Van Thien held a ceremony to erect a statue of the Virgin Mary, which was brought from Rome and carved from a block of Italian marble. She holds a globe in her hands, and presses down a snake with her feet, which is a symbol of the fight against evil. The height of the statue is more than four meters. Its author is the Italian sculptor G. Siochetti.
The current name of the basilica, Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral, replaced the old name in 1962. When the Vatican gave the building the status of a basilica. And declared it the main cathedral of Saigon.
Building a church
The red brick of the Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral arrived in Vietnam from Marseille, and Bishop Lefebvre himself laid the first stone for the construction of the basilica on March 281863. The author of the building project was the architect Baurat.
At the time the church was completed, it was the most beautiful sacred building in the French colonies. It was not only a religious flagship, but also imposed French influence in Indochina. The bright red bricks have retained their color to this day. Then they were unique and admired by the locals.
Over time, broken and broken tiles and bricks were replaced with local materials from Vietnam.
The Miracle of 2005
According to eyewitnesses, in 2005, the statue of the Virgin Mary, located outside, allegedly shed tears, although the Catholic Church denied this event. But whether or not the Vatican approved it, the alleged miracle generated such a large influx of visitors that police intervention was required.
Features
Despite such a fairly long history of the Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral, few people know about the architecture of this church. It was built in the Neo-Romanesque style, which at that time was very popular in Europe. In addition, some Gothic elements are also found here. It is considered a smaller copy of the French Notre Dame de Paris. When viewed from the outside, the entire building, including the roofs and walls, is red. The peculiarity of such bricks and tiles is the ability to retain their original color from the day of construction to the present and resist mold.
Not a few broken tiles of Notre Dame Saigonthere are lyrics by Guichard Carvin, Marseille St André France. Fragments with the words Wang-Tai Saigon were also found. It is possible that these are pieces of tiles produced later in Saigon and used to replace the victims of the Second World War. Many glass windows were broken then.
Description of Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral
The inside of the church is quite large, it can accommodate 1,200 people. It has two main rows of rectangular columns, six on each side (12 in total). They symbolize the 12 apostles. Immediately behind the two main rows of columns there is a corridor in which there are several niches with small altars (there are about 20 in total). The altars and small statues, hand carved by the craftsman, are made of white marble.
On the walls there are 56 glass windows with images of characters or events from the Bible, 31 rosettes, 25 multi-colored glass windows. Unfortunately, only two of the original windows have survived to this day.
The inside of the temple is quite spacious, there are special benches for parishioners.
Organ
If you stand at the main altar of the church and look high above the main door, you can see a large wooden wall. It's called the "organ shelf" and this wooden wall hides the pipes of the organ, which is one of the two oldest instruments in existence today. It has been handcrafted by foreign craftsmen and is designed to provide proper sound throughout the building.church.
It is estimated that the instrument itself is over three meters high, four meters wide and two meters long. These parameters do not include aluminum pipes with a diameter of about an inch. During the entire period of its existence, several organs were installed in the cathedral, the earliest were unsuitable for the building. The first organ was completed in the 18th century by the famous builder François-Henri Clicquot. Part of the original pipes of this creator in the pedal compartment continues to sound today. The instrument was almost completely rebuilt and enlarged in the 19th century by Aristide Kavaii-Coll.
The organ has 7,374 pipes, of which 900 are classified as historical. It has 110 registers, five manuals (keyboards for playing by hands) with 56 keys, and a pedal keyboard with 32 keys. In December 1992, a two-year restoration of the organ was completed, which completely computerized the instrument in three local networks. The restoration also included a number of additions.
Unfortunately, innovations and restoration did not extend the life of this complex instrument. He's out of order. The church currently has a similar organ, much smaller, valued at about $70,000, and relatively new. It was sent as a gift by the former French Consul in Ho Chi Minh City.
The voice of the Basilica and its time
On both sides of the organ there are voids that belong to the bell tower. From them actually grows its roof with a height of more than 26 meters. Only one narrow staircase leads to the bells.
If you walk along it,then about halfway, at a height of fifteen meters, there is a small arch with a door. Behind it lies a significant part of the clock of the Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City. Clock mechanism is very large. To set it up, there is a special small clock behind the car. By tracking their performance, you can find out how well the big ones are doing. A special person at the basilica is in charge of the clock and winds it once a week.
There are six bells in the cathedral. The three largest of them are: the s alt bell, whose weight is 8,745 kg, the si bell, weighing 3,150 kg, and the re bell (2,194 kg). The total weight of the church bells is about 30 tons, they were all cast in France in 1879. Each of them has its own timbre (three smaller bells - la, do and mi). Initially, during the construction of the church, there was no roof on the bell towers. In 1885, the architect Gard added roofs to completely cover them at a height of 57 meters.
How to get to Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral
Tourists usually have no problem finding the church building, as the route is easy and almost anyone can give visitors the directions they need. The temple is located in the heart of the city on Paris Square. The easiest option is to walk slowly 5-10 minutes from the Ben Tan market. The entrance to the temple is free. Opening hours for tourists: from 4 to 9 hours and from 14 to 18, on weekends it is closed. You can also attend Mass on the weekends. Sunday mass in English and Vietnamese begins at 9:30. If when visiting the temple inon weekdays, the main entrance is closed, you can get inside through the side gate.
The address of Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral is Kong-chon Kong-ha-Paris street No. 1, right at the intersection of Pham Ngoc Thach, St. Douan and Kong-ha streets of Paris.
