Beautiful landscape Of my hometown_ Phat Diem is cathedral of over 120 years old in VietNam

Phat Diem stone church is a famous cathedral in northern Vietnam. It was built entirely of stone and ironwood which is known as the Catholic capital of Viet nam"

Phat Diem cathedral (also known as Phat Diem stone church) is the most beautiful Catholic church in Vietnam. Time can not make any influence on the beauty of this project. The project is located on an area of 22 hectares in Phat Diem town, Kim Son district, Ninh Binh province, about 120 km from Hanoi.

This architectural complex was chaired by Rev. Peter Tran Luc (also known as Sau, 1825-1899), the founder of Phat Diem since 1965. The project was built with many kinds of materials. They are stone, sand, lime and brick. The construction began in 1875 and was completed in 1898.

Phat Diem cathedral church consists of a large church and 5 small churches (including a church built entirely of natural stone, known as stone church); family (bell tower); ponds and 3 artificial caves. In this photo is the family, the most prominent feature in this religious community.
Phuong Dinh means square house, shaped like a large communal house that is empty with horizon of 21 m, 25 m high, including 3 floors. On the top of the house is a bell molded pure copper. Every time the bell rang, the neighbors from everywhere could heard very clearly. The largest downstairs, built entirely of square blue stone, divided into three lobes is a collapse. Collapsing in the middle of the largest is a mass of 4.2 meters long, 3.2 meters wide, 0.3 meters thick.

The Phat Diem Cathedral is unique church in this area. although it is a Catholic building, it is modeled after the traditional Vietnamese temple architecture with numerous arched arches. And the whole of the West is blended into one.

Phat Diem church was built entirely of stone and ironwood. The wood is taken from many localities such as Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Son Tay ... and the stone is taken from Thien Diem Mountain, about 30 km far from Phat Diem, and 60 km far from Nhut Mountain which isnear Thanh Hoa. most of the stone are blocks and lumber.
There were many trees weighing up to 7 tons and rocks weighing up to 20 tons which were transported by crude means of late nineteenth century.

Phat Diem cathedral also has many detailed carves that were made very delicately. Around the buildings are decorated with many relatives that are taken from the village of Vietnam such as parts, daisies, bamboo, apricot or lotus ... The reliefs are carved from monolithic blue stones. being located in center is the cathedral, which was built in the last three months of 1891, but material preparation and foundation treatment were made 10 years before that. It was not simple to complete this building Phat Diem was an area of high seawater, which weakened the soil and forced the laborers to close down millions of bamboo stakes and thousands of new stone blocks to build a solid foundation for the project.

In the system of 5 small churches, there is one church made totally from a kind of stone named "mother's heart". This is the first building of the catheral
. In the church, visitors always feel refreshed and cool despite all weather. The church is 15.3 meters long, 8.5 meters wide and 6 meters high. Most of the foundation, columns, beams, walls, bars, towers or altars are made of stone, so Phat Diem used to call it Rock Church. In the church, visitors always feel refreshed and cool despite all weather



Over the past 100 years, despite the impact of natural disasters, war, the church is quite stable and is preserved until now. The architectural complex of Phat Diem church has been classified as a national historical and cultural monument in 1988. Ninh Binh province and the related agencies are completing the dossier to request UNESCO to recognize the Phat Diem church as a heritage of World culture. I do hope that you would set your time to take a tour to Stone Church once.