SmallTI's BLOG

Hi Bloger ! Today i will show you guys a little big about my city. Especially, one famous site you should visit is Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica.

   Overview:

Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, (Vietnamese: Nhà thờ Đức Bà Sài Gòn), is a cathedral located in the downtown of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Established by French colonists, the cathedral was constructed between 1863 and 1880. It has two bell towers, reaching a height of 58 meters (190 feet).

   History:

Following the conquest Vienam, This catheral was built in order for the French colonialists. It used to be a abandoned pogada before. The French had change it into a church.

At first, the church is small,thus in 1863, Admiral Bonard decided to build a wooden church on a bank of the Charner canal. In 1865, it completed and called Saigon Church. But later, it was damage because of the quality of wood. The wooden church was damage by termites. All church services were held in the guest-chamber of the French Governor's Palace (this palace would later be turned into a seminary until the Notre-Dame Cathedral was completed.)

In 1876,  the Governor of Cochinchina M. Duperré held a design contest for the new catheral.  The design by architect J. Bourad defeated 17 others and was chosen by the contest organizers.J. Bourad's design was in a revised Roman style mixed with Gothic elements. The chosen design was the most beautiful one in a French colony at that time.

All building materials were imported from France. The outside wall of the cathedral was built with bricks from Marseille. Although the contractor did not use coated concrete, these bricks have retained their bright red color until now.

In 1895, two bell towers were added to the cathedral, each 57.6 high with 6 bronze bells with the total weight of 28.85 metric tonnes.The crosses were installed on the top of each tower of 3.5 m high, 2 m wide, 600 kg in weight. The total height of the cathedral to the top of the Cross is 60.5 m.

In the flower garden in front of the cathedral, there was a bronze statue of Pigneau de Behaine (also called Bishop Adran) leading prince Canh, the son of Gia Long by his right hand. The statue was made in France. In 1945, the statue was removed but the foundation remains.This is the statue.

, Bishop Joseph Pham Van Thien, whose jurisdiction included Saigon parish, attended Holy Mother Congress held in Vatican and ordered a Peaceful Notre Dame statue made with granite in Rome. When the statue arrived in Saigon, on 16 February 1959 Bishop Pham Van Thien held a ceremony to install the statue on the empty base and presented the title of "Regina Pacis". It was Bishop Pham Van Thien who wrote the prayers "Notre-Dame bless the peace to Vietnam". On the next day, Cardinal Aganianian came from Rome to chair the closing ceremony of the Holy Mother Congress and solemnly chaired the ceremony for the statue, thus the cathedral was then-on called Notre-Dame Cathedral.