Sites : St. Joseph Cathedral, Hanoi, Vietnam

Friday, December 14, 2012

Sites : St. Joseph Cathedral, Hanoi, Vietnam

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St. Joseph Cathedral

40 Nha Chung Street, Hanoi, Vietnam - March 2009

Front View of St. Joseph's Cathedral

I had touched lightly on the St. Joseph Cathedral in my travel blog on Hanoi (see Vietnam - Hanoi Day 3).
Having spent about 2-3 hours at this place, I was quite taken by it, and my blog here will elaborate on this church and also show more of it's stain-glass mosaic window.
The cathedral is of Gothic design along the lines of the Notre Dame in Paris. Somehow its grey old walls add to its stature as an aged building.

THE OUTSIDE

St. Joseph Cathedral is situated at the junction of Nha Tho & Nha Chung streets. Over here, there is a round-a-bout where the locals, mostly youngsters gather & meet. The streets in the neighborhood are lined with souvenir and F&B shops.
I think this round-a-bout is part of the church as a statue of St. Joseph is located within.

Sitting at to one side of the front of the church is a marble white statue of St. Joseph with the young Jesus on one lap and a little girl on the other side.

At the back and to one side is a shrine to Mother Mary, I stopped there to offer some prayers.

Follow the road and further down is the St. Joseph's Seminary, it's building in the white-washed yellow color - the norm for most Catholic institutes.

At the entrance to the driveway on the left is a statue of St. Joseph, carrying the infant high on his shoulder. This time the statue is in some dark brown stone.

Close-up of St. Joseph's Statue with the child Jesus.

On the left of this statue is an entrance to a stately building, is this the residence of the Bishop?

A bit off, there was another building, painted in the same color tone. It design was an unique blend of French style but with a Chinese style roof over the entrance.

THE INSIDE

The Main Altar

On the inside, the church was relatively grand for one in an Asian country.

The alcove for the main altar looks of an old design with timber panels trimmed with gold embellishments. Above were bright stained-glass mosaic windows.

In an alcove to the left of the main altar is a shrine to Jesus.

While on the right was a shrine dedicated to Mary, Mother of Jesus.

On the left of the main altar was a shrine of St. Anthony of Padua. In front of this, there is a tomb, with a picture and wreaths - a memorial to a priest/bishop?

THE STAINED-GLASS MOSAIC

High on the walls of the church are beautiful stained-glass windows. I have tried to take photos of these without flash, but in the poor light and with my simple automatic camera some came out blur. So I took those again with flash, but without the back light shining through they are not so pretty.

The three stained-glass windows over the main altar.

The stained-glass above the shrine of Jesus.

Over the shrine of Mary.

On the side walls are stained-glass windows of many saints of the Roman Catholic Church. This one is of St. John the Baptist. (The inscriptions are in French)