Vietnam: Interior of St. Peter’s chapel, Phat Diem Cathedral, Phat Diem

Phat Diem Cathedral is located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh Province. It is one of the most celebrated and unusual churches in Vietnam. Phat Diem church architecture is a synthesis of Sino-Vietnamese and French Catholic styles.

Catholicism came early to Phat Diem. Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon who first developed Vietnam’s quoc ngu writing system, preached here as long ago as 1627, but it was a Vietnamese priest, Father Tran Luc (also known as Cu Sau or ‘Old Six’) who conceived and organised the construction of Phat Diem’s extraordinary cathedral between 1875 and 1898.

The cathedral complex is dominated by a monumental bell tower with curved Chinese eaves and triple gateway that could easily be mistaken for the entrance to a Vietnamese temple, were it not for the angels and crucifixes prominently in evidence. Behind the bell tower the main body of the cathedral extends back along a dark, cool nave about 75 metres (246 ft) long, the roof supported by the gigantic trunks of 52 single ironwood trees, the Latin rubric pax domini, ‘the peace of the lord’, inscribed on many.

An altarpiece of extraordinary cultural syncretism frames the altar, cut from a single block of marble. The centrepiece, behind a large crucifix, is a statue of the Virgin and Child, but the whole is completely surrounded by a background of elaborate crimson lacquer and gold leaf, more like the Temple of Literature in Hanoi than a Catholic church.

To compound the syncretic effect, a barred shrine houses a statue of the Virgin Mary in a gilded mandarin’s palanquin, while representations of phoenixes, lions, bamboo groves, peach blossoms and other typically Vietnamese motifs are carved into the pillars and elaborate ceiling joists. Beside the main door to the cathedral, the figures of two angels are incised into the stone.

Outside, in front of the cathedral, is a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the Christ-child in her arms. As is quite common in Vietnam, the appearance of the ‘Mother of God’ bears much in common with Sino-Vietnamese statues of Guanyin, the ‘Goddess of Mercy’ – but here the syncretism is compounded by the Virgin’s dress, as she is clad in an elegant Vietnamese ao dai.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

David Henley

Credit:

Pictures From Asia