The famous central cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon, built by French colonists between 1863 and 1880, is one of the architectural wonders of Vietnam. Located in the city center, incredibly beautiful and magnificent, it has always attracted many people.
Built entirely from materials imported from France, it is one of the most popular tourist spots in Ho Chi Minh City (which is better known as Saigon), along with Ben Thanh Market and Reunification Palace. The official name of the church is the “Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception”.
Location
Located between two traffic streams, the cathedral is located in the center of district 1 of the city of Saigon. The streets are always in full swing, and street vendors scurry around.
Notre Dame Cathedral (photo below) is located within walking distance of the city’s central post office and Diamond Plaza Shopping Center. Nearby is a park where you can stroll in the direction of the Reunification Palace.
Popularity
Inside the building itself, the atmosphere is strict, but the church comes to life 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 tao.
Many tourists go straight to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon, or Notre Dame de Saigon, as the French called it, as the first attraction of this city, and for good reason.
It is difficult to miss the twin towers protruding into the sky at 60 meters.
Title
Initially, the most outstanding sacred building in Ho Chi Minh City was called the Saigon Church.
In 1959, Bishop Fam Van Thien held the ceremony of installing the statue of the Virgin Mary, which was brought from Rome and carved from a block of Italian marble. She holds the globe in her hands, and presses the 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. Syochetti.
The current name of the basilica - the Cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon - replaced the old name in 1962. When the Vatican gave the building the status of a basilica. And he declared it the main cathedral of Saigon.
Church building
The red brick of Notre Dame Cathedral arrived in Vietnam from Marseille, and Bishop Lefebvre himself laid the first stone for the construction of the basilica on March 28, 1863. The author of the building project was 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. 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 by local materials from Vietnam.
Miracle of 2005
According to eyewitnesses, in 2005, a statue of the Virgin Mary, located outside, allegedly shed tears, although the Catholic Church denied this event. But whether the Vatican approved it or not, the alleged miracle caused such a large flow of visitors that police intervention was required.
Features
Despite such a rather long history of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon, few people know about the architecture of this church. It was built in Neo-Romanesque style, which at that time was very popular in Europe. In addition, there are also individual Gothic elements. It is considered a smaller copy of the French Notre Dame de Paris. When viewed from the outside, the entire building, including roofs and walls, is red. The peculiarity of such bricks and tiles is the ability to maintain their original color from the day of construction to the present and resist mold.
Not a few broken tiles of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon have the words Guichard Carvin, Marseille St André France. Fragments with the words Wang-Tai Saigon were also found. Perhaps these are pieces of tiles produced later in Saigon and used to replace victims of the Second World War. Then many glass windows were shattered.
Description of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon
Inside the church is quite large, it can accommodate 1,200 people. It contains two main rows of rectangular columns, six on each side (12 in total). They symbolize the 12 apostles. Right behind the two main rows of columns is a corridor in which there are several niches with small altars (there are about 20 in total). Altars and small statues carved by the craftsman are made of white marble.
On the walls are 56 glass windows with images of characters or events from the Bible, 31 rosettes, 25 multi-colored glass stained-glass windows. Unfortunately, only two original windows have survived to date.
Inside the temple is quite spacious, there are special benches for parishioners.
Organ
If standing at the main altar of the church, looking high above the main door, you can see a large wooden wall. It is called the "organ shelf", and this wooden wall hides the pipes of the organ, which is one of the two oldest instruments to date. It was hand-made by foreign specialists and is designed to ensure proper sound throughout the church building.
It is estimated that the instrument itself is more than three meters high, its width is four, and its length is two meters. These options do not include aluminum pipes with a diameter of about an inch. Over 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 Francois-Henri Clicquot. Part of the original pipes of this creator in the pedal compartment continues to sound today. The tool was almost completely rebuilt and enlarged in the 19th century by Aristide Kawaii Call.
The authority has 7,374 pipes, of which 900 are classified as historical. It has 110 registers, five manuals (keyboards for playing with hands) with 56 keys and a pedal keyboard with 32 keys. In December 1992, a two-year restoration of the organ was completed, which fully 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 is out of order. Currently, the church has a similar body, much smaller in size, valued at approximately $ 70,000 and is relatively new. He was sent as a gift by the former French consul in Ho Chi Minh City.
The voice of the basilica and its time
On two sides of the organ are voids that belong to the bell tower. Of these, its roof actually grows more than 26 meters high. 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 hours of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City. The clockwork is very large. To set it up, there is a special small clock behind the machine. By tracking their work, you can find out how well the big ones work. A special person at the basilica is responsible for the operation of the watch and starts it once a week.
There are six bells in the cathedral. The three largest of them are: salt bell, whose weight is 8,745 kg, si bell weighing 3,150 kg and bell pe (2,194 kg). The total weight of the bells of the church is about 30 tons, all of them were 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 on the bell towers there was no roof. In 1885, architect Gard added roofs to completely close them at an altitude of 57 meters.
How to get to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon
Tourists usually do not have any problems with finding a church building, since the route is simple, and almost everyone can give visitors the necessary directions. The temple is located in the heart of the city on Paris Square. The easiest option is to walk slowly 5-10 minutes from Ben Tan Market. 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 at weekends. On Sunday, the Mass in English and Vietnamese begins at 9:30. If the main entrance is closed during a visit to the temple on weekdays, you can get inside through the side gate.
The address of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Saigon is Kong-chong Kong-ha-Paris No. 1, right at the intersection of Fam Ngok Thacha, Saint-Duan and Kong-ha Paris.