Phat Diem Catholic Cathedral, Ninh Binh, Vietnam

Phat Diem Catholic Cathedral (Nhà Thờ Đá Phát Diệm) TT. Phát Diệm, Kim Sơn District, Ninh Bình Province, Vietnam.

The Phát Diệm Cathedral (Vietnamese: Nhà thờ chính tòa Phát Diệm; French: Cathédrale de Phat Diem) is in Kim Sơn District of Ninh Bình Province of Vietnam. The architecture of the church – built in stone in 1892 – is an eclectic blend of Vietnamese and European architectural styles. Although a church, it was built with pagoda-type roofs like traditional Vietnamese temples. It was bombed in 1972 and later restored. In addition to the cathedral, the Phát Diệm complex also consists of 5 chapels.

The cathedral, a towering stone edifice, was built in 1892 in the Vietnamese style, blended with stone walls built in European neo-Gothic style. To test the foundation condition of the cathedral site in a boggy area, Father Six had created a mound of limestone boulders and found the conditions not to be suitable to build it. It is decorated with box-type cupolas (domes) with "upturned tiled roofs", which are like pagodas. Père Six, who built it, was particular to haul the sand stones to build the cathedral from quarry a distance of more than 200 kilometres (120 mi) away. The eclectic design of the cathedral appears as if the pagodas "had been dropped into the towers of a Gothic church."

A statue of Our Lady of La Vang in a lake by the cathedral. The overall size of the cathedral is 210 feet (64 m) in length, with a width of 60 feet (18 m). The nave of the cathedral is built over 52 pillars, of which 16 are 11-metre tall (36 ft), carved from large ironwood trees. In the front worship area, the altar is made of a single slab, ornamented in "orthodox-style" and is made of "lacquered and gilded woodwork".

Above the altar, there are portrait paintings of about 30 missionaries, most of European origin. The vaulted ceiling has paintings of angels in Vietnamese style. The interior walls are decorated with Catholic iconography, but particularly have paintings of Eastern religious symbols like dragons, unicorns, tortoises and phoenixes.

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