Notre Dame Cathedral of Sai Gon

Today I will introduce you to a must-visit site that I have been fortunate to visit twice in Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City.

Do you know?

Saigon was the first place that the French occupied during the colonial expansion war in Vietnam. Shortly after the capture of Saigon, the French built a church to serve as a place of worship for Catholics in the Far East.

I used to be surprised to learn that this cathedral which was built on street 5, on the base of a small Vietnamese temple was abandoned ... In addition to the purpose of worshiping, worshiping for believers, I probably thought that the meaning of building the cathedral was also in the goal of exaggerating Catholicism and the greatness of French civilization before the colonists.

Later on, I felt so disgusted by the brutal French policies towards local people although I really admired the beauty of this cathedral as well as many artistic French architecture monuments in Vietnam.

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By the way, I have been wandering a flight, just let's get back to the main content about the Notre Dame Cathedral of Sai Gon.

Notre Dame Cathedral is one of the most unique buildings in Saigon. First, when I stepped inside the cathedral, I was impressed by its size compared to other churches in Vietnam.

More than that, I saw around it without a fence wall.

One special thing that the tour guide told me is that the nails of the church are specially designed, withstand loads 10 times the entire church architecture above. From the outside, from the wall to the whole roof is a fresh, red brick, with no moss molding on it. There are also some broken tiles in the church, with the letters Guichard Carvin, Marseille St André France printed on top, and some other tiles with the words Wang - Tai Saigon. It is possible that this piece of tile was produced later in Saigon used to replace broken tiles during World War II.

Tour guide told me that during the World War II, many of the church's glass door was broken. However, they have been replaced by Vietnam handmade alternatives.

The glass windows of Notre Dame of Sai Gon

I have walked around the cathedral and count the number of glass windows.  It was a stained glass system on the wall which consists of 56, depicting characters and events in the Bible. When there is light shining on the beauty shimmering, splendid. 31 round-shaped pink vent holes straight into the wall look like silk patterns. 25 multi-colored glazed colored eyeglass windows are paired with beautiful images.

Next, I went inside. I felt the space is large because the interior of the cathedral is designed as a main lobe, two secondary, followed by two rows of chapel. According to the tour guide told us, the cathedral accommodates about 1,200 people, with two rectangular columns on each side of the six (totaling twelve) representing the twelve apostles. Right after the main column is a corridor with quite a lot of compartments. Here, place more than 20 altars with small altars and statues made of fine white stone. The cathedral's lighting system was originally designed with electricity, not candles. At daytime, it is illuminated by sunlight, through colored glass windows and vents.

Two bells Towers

Then we climbed the bell tower of the church, and later I climbed the Notre Dame of Paris. Then, I have found the similarities in the method of making bell towers between France Cathedral and France colonized Cathedral.

Two bell towers were built in 1895 (this was the year the French colonialists completely established colonial system in Vietnam) . According to the tour guide, in 1920, on each side of the bell tower, a cross at a height of 3.5 m, 2 m across.

Moreover , I remembered that he said about the overall height from the ground to the top of the cross but I could not remember the specific number.. The bell tower had six large bellies, the largest at that time in the Far East, the sound was Sol, La, Si, Do, Re, Mi. From the outside, the bell tower on the right is the south bell tower. This place is hung the largest bell and three smaller bells. On the left side of the ladies' ring are two hanging bells.

The statue of Our Lady of Peace

You can see that I am standing in front of the cathedral, which is a park. In the middle of the park is the statue of Our Lady of Peace (or Queen Peace). At the left flank of the statue there is the engraved author G. Ciocchetti. Statue carved in Italy, moved to Saigon in 1959, by waterway. The statue is 4.6 m high, weighs 5.8 tons, white marble, not polished, still rudimentary. The statue of Our Lady in the upright position, holding the globe, on the globe with the crucifix, the eyes of the Virgin Mary looked at heaven as if praying for Vietnam and for the world to be at peace. Mother Mary stepped on the snake. On the pedestal, in front of the statue, there is a bronze plaque with the Latin letters REGINA PACIS - OPRA PRONOBIS - XVII. II. MCMLIX (Queen of Peace - Bridge to us - 17-02-1959).

Below the rock pedestal, adjacent to the base of the statue, there is a small niche, inside a silver box, containing prayers for peace.

To conclude this introduction to the site, I must acknowledge that this is a truly great architectural work of great historical and architectural art.

Moreover, it is a living proof of a long history of the Vietnamese people. Although I see the Church of Notre Dame is over a hundred years old but today it still exists as a living relic that demonstrates the religious freedom of the country.

I highly recommend your guys to visit this catheral, especially on the night of Noel Cathedral area and the city center turned into a festive jubilant area. One of the most unique buildings in Saigon, always It attracts the attention of many Vietnamese.

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