Visiting church, the house of God, has always been an exciting thing for me. To my amazement, in a predominantly Buddhist country like Vietnam, a cathedral built in French style architecture is the city’s iconic symbol and one of the most prominent landmarks in the cityscape. We rode motorbikes to tour around the city and visited the strikingly beautiful cathedral in the middle of the busy streets called Note Dame Cathedral of Saigon.
Constructed between 1863 and 1880, the cathedral was modeled after the Notre Dame in Paris. The building was established by the French colonists to highlight the glory of the French empire as well as to promote Christianity in Vietnam. Christianity made its way to Vietnam during the 16th century but only started to flourish nationwide in the 19th century. At the beginning, the cathedral was built on a former Vietnamese abandoned pagoda. The first structure was a small wooden church but unfortunately termites ate it up. As a result, a proposal to have a new design was given out. A design competition was soon held in August 1876 by the Governor of Cochinchina M. Duperré to choose the best architecture. A famous French architect named J. Bourad defeated the other 17 rivals and won the bid with his classical Neo-Roman and Gothic style architectural design. The first foundation of the cathedral was laid by Bishop Isidore Colombert on 7 October 1877. The next three years after its completion, an inauguration ceremony was conducted in the presence of the Governor of Cochinchina Charles Le Myre de Vilers on 11 April 1880. A granite plate was placed inside the main entrance gate to commemorate the start and completion of the church as well as the designer’s name. The whole construction spent about 2,500,000 French Francs. Because of the source of the construction, the church was formerly called State Cathedral.
Built using all imported materials from French, the outside walls of the cathedral used bricks from Marseille which have retained bright red color until now. Two bell towers each of 58 meters height with six bronze bells with total weight of 29 metric tons were added in 1895. Crosses were then placed on top of each tower measuring 3.5 meters high, 2 meters wide and 600 kg heavy. The total height of the cathedral from the foot to the top of the cross is 60 meters. The political tribulation and wars in Vietnam at that time had inspired Bishop Joseph Pham Van Thien who attended the Holy Mother congress in Vatican in 1959 to order a peaceful Notre Dame statue made of white granite from Rome. The name of the statue was the Peace Virgin Mary that was made of precious marble and placed at the park in front of the cathedral. The statue was brought to Saigon on February 1959. In 1962, the statue was installed and the cathedral was anointed by Vatican who rewarded the status Basilica to it. From that time onwards, the cathedral upgraded its name to Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica.
Situated in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City’s government quarter and sat between two streams of busy streets, the cathedral is one of the city’s marvel. It is not only the largest church in Ho Chi Minh City but also the oldest. Not only visited for religious activities, the cathedral is also a tourist destination and favorite photo site for wedding photography. It is also used by a lot of Vietnamese movie stars, singers and models as background for their video or movie. Though no admission is required to enter the inside part, the cathedral is almost closed every day and only opened on Sundays during the mass service that starts at 9.30 am. The service is delivered in Vietnamese and English and attended both by the locals and foreigners alike. If you are eager to explore the interior, join the mass service but be mindful in taking photographs during the service.
The view of the back of the church 
Situated in the middle of busy streets, the cathedral is always bustling with traffic and street vendors. 
It was very hard to take photographs without any vehicles as the background due to the high traffic in this area. 
The grandiose statue of the Peace Virgin Mary is placed at the park in front of the cathedral. The statue is in a standing position with hands holding a globe with a cross on top of it while with meditative eyes gazing towards the sky to pray for peace in Vietnam and the world. Carved by G. Ciocchetti in 1959 whose name was inscribed on the left side of the dress, the statue measures 4.6 meters high and 5.8 meters heavy. Made in white marble of Italy, the foot of the statue steps on a snake’s head. On the pedestal at the front face of the statue is inscribed the Latin sentence REGINA PACIS - ORA PRONOBIS - XVII. II. MCMLIX (Queen of Peace - Pray for us - 17/02/1959). 
In October 2005, rumor about the statue shedding tears spread very quickly. Thousands of visitors gathered around the statue to see this unique phenomenon. This situation blocked the city traffic and created a temporary chaos. However, the Catholic Church officially denied the rumor and claimed that the statue did not shed tears. 
By the time I visited the statue, there were already a lot of visitors gathering around the cathedral. Travel buses stopped at exactly the front doors of the cathedral that made the photo background imperfect. And the bad thing was we had to queue to take picture with the statue. Sigh… 
Look at the clock in the center of the two bell towers. Manufactured in Switzerland in 1887, it is 15 meters from the ground measuring 2.5 meters high, 3 meters long, more than one meter broad and more than one ton heavy. Despite its old age, the clock still works properly.
The church is 133 meters long, 35 meters wide and 21 meters high. With this size, it could accommodate up to 1.200 people. We were not lucky enough to enter the church because at that time it was closed. Since I have never been to Europe, visiting one of the French colonial architecture remnants in this Notre Dame Cathedral gives me insight of how the churches in French or broadly Europe look like. I believe one day I will step my feet there, yet not my will but the Lord’s will be done. All praise and glory and honor to the one and only living God, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Source:
Personal experience and additional information from other online articles
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