Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon

In front of you is the Nhà thờ Đức Bà, the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon, the best-known church in southern Vietnam. Its red colour is not paint: it is the original brick, shipped from France.

1A church for the colony

The French captured Saigon in 1859 and held their first services in a wooden church that termites eventually destroyed. To replace it, a design competition was held and won by the architect Jules Bourard. Bishop Isidore Colombert laid the first stone on 7 October 1877, and the church was blessed on Easter Sunday 1880. Almost all the materials came by ship from France: the bricks, roof tiles stamped with the name of a Marseille workshop, and stained glass from the Lorin firm of Chartres. The two towers, almost 58 metres high, were added in 1895.

2From Saigon church to basilica

For decades it was simply called the church of Saigon. The name Notre-Dame took hold in 1959, when the statue of the Queen of Peace was placed in front of it, and in 1962 Pope John XXIII gave it the title of basilica. A major restoration began in 2017. On 19 March 2026 two new crosses, forged in Belgium to the original design, went back up on top of the towers; the parish expects to finish the work around 2027.

3What to look for

• The bare brick, which has kept its colour without any rendering.
• The gilded crosses newly installed on top of the towers.
• The rose window above the main door.