Finally getting around to continuing my Vietnam travel series, which was put on hold because of RL. Out here in my little corner of the world, it gets colder and colder. When the temperature drops to a chilly 7.4 degrees Celsius, I tend to forget that I am living in a tropical country. But between this chill and the scorching, burning and sweat-inducing heat of summer, you know what I’d pick, right?
I’d be honest and say right out that Vietnam was never on my mental list of places to “visit for some sightseeing”. I just didn’t think it had much to offer (besides history and culture lessons, that is). On hindsight, I blame that assumption on lack of information. Because when we were running up to the Vietnam trip and I started looking up places to visit, it was only then that I realized how Hanoi (and Vietnam, in general) has so much to show to a wandering eye like mine.
Hanoi is such a small area, that when we looked at the walking map we snagged from our hotel front desk, we realized that everything within The Old Quarter and its immediate surrounding area can actually be reached on foot. So that’s what we did on this particular day: stayed on our feet and walked. And walked some more.
We were going by the seat of our pants, and our map, as we stepped out of our hotel and just started walking. Our first stop: the St. Joseph’s Cathedral.
The cathedral is located a bit on the periphery of the Old Quarter, so unless you’re paying attention to the map on your hands, it’s easy to get lost in the maze of roads and side streets. And at one point, the buildings will probably start to look identical to one another, so there’s also that.
But if you have an eye for architecture, you’d find yourself stopping once in a while to appreciate some of the structures, which felt like a throwback to some bygone era, where colonialism was at its peak. French influences are still very much alive in this part of Vietnam, and if not for the signs and indicators written in Viet, it’s so easy to pretend you’re in an old European town.
(And the fact that there is quite a significant number of Caucasians mingling with the locals kind reinforce that feel even more. And when they open their mouths and start speaking in a language you don’t understand? Feel free and pretend they’re speaking in French.)
Finding the St. Joseph’s Cathedral was quite a challenge. It’s not like you can just look up and spot a bell tower easily, because the structures around the area are densely packed, and quite tall, too. Plus, it was mostly flatlands, so no hills or elevated areas where the Cathedral is supposed to be erected on.
So again, maps are your lifeline. Oh, and actually paying attention to where you’re going helps a whole lot, too.
What tipped us off that we’re actually close to the Cathedral was a wide square with lots of young people hanging around, seated and each doing their own thing. As you can see from the pic below, lots of coffee places (I’ll take about how coffee AND Vietnam in a future post since that deserves an entirely separate entry) and bistros around the Cathedral area.
This is why the place got the moniker “Lemon Tea Street”, because of the influx of Western style stores, making it a favorite place for young people to hang out.
And then, there he is. The Saint Joseph’s Cathedral. Stony and imposing, in the middle of what – to me, at least – is one of the more unlikely places to have a stone religious edifice on.
There is a small enclosure in front of the Cathedral, which has a small, well-tended garden inside. Unfortunately, it’s not open for visitors to enter.
The Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Hanoi, Vietnam is an actual Church that is being used to this day, not just a relic of the past for sightseers. Currently, there are over 4 million Catholics in Vietnam, and this serves as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hanoi. It also happens to be the oldest Church in Hanoi, having been built way back in 1886 when the French colonized the country.
This structure is described to have been constructed in a late 19th century Neo-Gothic architectural style. And apparently, the French colonial government built it to resemble the Paris Cathedral, the Notre Dame de Paris. Not an exact copy, but with obvious similarities, and the most telling of them all are the two bell towers.
Within that garden enclosure is a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus in her arm.
I liked how, even when the surrounding area is quite packed with tourists and local youngsters, it was still clean and well-maintained.
The main material used for the exterior walls of the Cathedral are granite stone slabs. But wear and tear – and lots of pollution, or so they said – took its toll on the stone, and eroded it a bit.
I don’t think it was completely a bad thing, though, because somehow that “erosion” lent it a different aesthetic feel overall. It actually gave it a different… shall we say “texture”? Personally, I’d prefer this look than if they painted it over. It made it look even more stately in its old age. Like, I’d go “wow, this Church is really old and look how it’s still standing” when, really, it’s just 120-ish years old – relatively younger than other Cathedrals.
The main doors are closed, and only opened when there is a mass going on. But the side doors are open, so that’s how we entered to check out the interior, and also to say a prayer of thanks for letting us have this opportunity to simply be in Vietnam together.
The Cathedral is only open for visits (aside from when mass is going on) in the mornings from 5:00am to 11:00am and in the afternoons from 2:00pm to 7:30pm.
Inside, the size of the place – though not as colossal as you’re probably used to – is quite humbling. Maybe it’s the hushed atmosphere, or the sense of “smallness” you’d get standing down there and looking up at the high rib vaulted ceiling. or maybe it’s just the solemnity of it all.
I suppose if the doors were open and the place was more well-lit during a service, the play of colors would be more apparent, but the interior of the St. Joseph Cathedral is predominantly red and yellow – which are the representative colors of Vietnam. But at the time, it was closed (except for the back entrances) and lighting was dim, so it all looked brown and a dim white.
Also, I saw some photos where the interior is all decked out with ornate draperies, and the main color theme is red. That time we went, there were none of those drapings or hangings.
As you would expect from a church with Western-style architecture, there are bound to be colored or stained glass windows inside, and this one does not disappoint. Apparently, these glass windows were produced and made in France, and were only brought to Vietnam when construction on the Cathedral was going on.
Exiting back the way we came in, there are also a number of interesting things to see out back. Like this statue.
Oh, and these wall art thingies depicting some key scenes in the life of Jesus where St. Joseph was involved. Well, duh, it is, after all, a place named after the Carpenter.
I don’t know what these are supposed to be for. Well, I know they are to transport someone or something, but they were lined up on the left side of the Church, right in front of the Diocese Building.
The one thing about this Church that I marvel at is the location. As I’ve said earlier, it’s surrounded by shops, stores, restaurants and coffee shops, which transform into bars at night. It’s clearly a popular place for young people to hang out, but the proximity to the Church makes me wonder how noisy these establishments could afford to be when the darkness sets in. Or if they’re even inclined to keep it down.
Does business go about as usual when a mass is going on? Because, really, what separates the Church from the business establishments are just narrow one-way streets.
Also, those young people who hang out often in the area, especially in the square beside the Regina Pacis (Queen of Peace) garden enclosure… I wonder if they are encouraged to join the masses, or even go in for some of the prayers.
*shrugs* I guess we should’ve stuck around the entire day to get the answers to those questions, but we had other places to check out, so we just had to say a warm bye to this place, and moved on.
(The Saint Joseph’s Cathedral is located at 40 Nha Chung Street. It connects the two streets of Nha Chung and Ly Quoc Su.)
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