PHAT DIEM CATHEDRAL

Phat Diêm Cathedral is the largest Catholic architectural complex in Southeast Asia. In addition to the main building, the complex includes five chapels, two grottoes, a campanile (called Phuong Dinh and built on the traditional plan of the region's communal houses), two porticoes and a calvary. The cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. Its style is obviously remarkable, combining East and West. The façade is surrounded by two five-storey towers modelled on the Thap But (Brush) tower on the shores of Lake Hoàn Kiêm in Hanoi. The nave is inspired by traditional pagoda architectural canons. 48 ironwood(lim) columns, with a circumference of 2.40 m, support the building's vaults, and in the central nave, they are no less than 12 m high! The rules of geomancy are respected: to the north, the cathedral is framed by symbolic mountains (three rocky heaps known as "Calvaire", "Grotte de Lourdes" and "Grotte de Béthléem"); to the south, a vast square pond.

Father Six (whose Vietnamese name was Trân Van Luc, 1825-1899), whose tomb is on the forecourt, had this cathedral built when he was parish priest of Phat Diêm (1866-1899). Begun in 1875, it was completed in 1898. The life of Father Six, parish priest and baron of Phat Diêm, Officer of the Legion of Honor, Honorary Minister of Rites of the Court of Annam and Viceroy of Annam, was extraordinary. His diplomatic skills led him to be consulted by French officers such as Captain Joffre and Commander Lyautey, and by the Emperors of Annam, who conferred on him the rank of Minister of State. From the Republic, he received the distinction of Chevalier, then Officier de la Légion d'Honneur. When he died in 1899, 40,000 people attended his funeral. His memory remains so glorious that, 25 years later, Emperor Khai Dinh posthumously awarded him the title of Baron of Phat Diem... Father Six's life is recounted by Mgr Armand Olichon in his book Le Père Six. Curé de Phat-Diem, vice-roi en Annam, (Paris, Bloud & Gay, 1941).

For historian Laurent Burel(Péninsule, 36. 1998 [1]), " in Phat Diem, [...] a purely Vietnamese style was established, which subsequently spread throughout the Red River delta. This is an example of the Christianization of Vietnamese architectural traditions, which, together with the alternating chants of Father Six, served as the basis for an authentically Vietnamese Christianity".