Out of nearly 200 churches in Vietnam, Phat Diem Cathedral is undoubtedly the biggest one. It was completed in 1891 and became the centre of Christianity in Vietnam. It is located in Kim Son district, Ninh Binh province…
Out of nearly 200 churches in Vietnam, Phat Diem Cathedral is undoubtedly the biggest one. It was completed in 1891 and became the centre of Christianity in Vietnam. It is located in Kim Son district, Ninh Binh province.
It occupies an area of three hectares and comprises 11 structures (seven provided with roofs and four in the open air). It is an architectural work of the Catholic Church, yet it harmoniously combines the features of Vietnamese ancient pagodas and communal houses with Western religious architecture: the structure of the floor and the interior part follow the Gothic style. Yet the roofs, the rafters, beams and ties draw extensively on the Vietnamese traditional architectural style.
The construction of Phat Diem Cathedral involved a lot of work, given its foundations on a land which had been marshland. A huge quantity of earth and stone had been brought from a mountain 40km away and tens of thou- sands of bamboo stakes had been planted into the land in order to strengthen
