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You may say a church is not your interest in a Far East country and thus you will be missing one of the most remarkable religious architectures in
Vietnam.
Phat
Diem
Church, a group of different churches of stone and wood, is the centre of Catholicism in
Northern Vietnam and designed in Vietnamese style mixed harmoniously with the European Catholic traditions. There's a grave on the ground of the
church of
Mr. Tran Luc, a local Catholic lived in late 19th century who designed the whole church without taking any official course of architecture and paintings.
Phat
Diem
Church is divided into two quarters: the churches and the clergy's house, which gradually completed in 1875 (the first Cavern built to test the subsidence of the area foundation), 1889 (the
church of
Saint Mary's Heart), 1891 (the Big Cathedral and the Belfry), and the Saints' shrines of Giuse, Phero and Rocco, all finished about 1898.
The traditional architecture of Vietnam is recognized obviously in each ornament: the Belfry has curly tiled roof-tops with decoration of Vietnamese temples, the shrine of Jesus' Heart is made of jackwood, the Big Cathedral is designed as a grandiose Communal House with sophisticated multi-level rafters, and all the churches are decorated with lotus, lemon flowers, birds, tropical trees like apricot and bamboo, and matched inscriptions in Chinese which are popular in Vietnamese Lunar New Year. The entire structure is admirable not only for the beauty of each fabric but for their amazingly unique co-ordination and is considered a pride of the contemporary folk works
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