Explore Sa Pa Stone Church

Located in a prime location right in the center of Sa Pa town, Sa Pa Stone Church is an architectural work with the most complete nostalgic beauty of the French left. Today, this place has become an indispensable symbol when referring to foggy Sa Pa.

It is not natural that Sa Pa stone church is so loved by tourists. This place has many cultural and historical meanings and is an important mark for the people of Sa Pa. Besides, the impressive ancient architecture, expressing many unique religious meanings is also the reason why this place attracts a large number of tourists. The front yard is quite large and is often the check-in point for most visitors every time they come here.

History of building Sa Pa stone church

Sa Pa Stone Church was built by the French in 1895 and inaugurated in 1935. In addition to being called the stone church, this place is also known as the ancient church or Lady of the Rosary church. From the early days, French architects have paid great attention to raw materials, terrain and construction direction. Thanks to that, up to now, despite many historical events and the erosion of time, although it has had to be restored many times, the church still retains many of its original architectural features.

Gothic La architecture boldly European

Overall, Sa Pa Stone Church was built in Roman Gothic architecture with a roof, dome, bell tower... extremely soaring and beautiful dome shape. The special thing about the construction of this church is that all parts of the church are built of carved stone, mixed with a mixture of limestone, sand and molasses, so it has extremely good quality and very high durability.

With a total area of the campus of more than 6,000 square meters, Sa Pa stone church is divided into areas including: Church area, parish house, priest's house, livestock house, angel house, front yard, the Holy Garden and surrounding fence. In particular, the church area includes 7 rooms with an area of about 500m2. The Parish house row was built parallel to the church area. The bell tower is 20m high. Every time the bell rings, even if you are 1km away, you can still hear it. In the tower hangs a bell cast in 1932, 1.5m high, weighing 500kg. The number of people who donated money to cast the bell is still clearly written on the surface. The structure of the Angel's house includes a basement, three upper floors where the sick were treated, overnight travelers, restrooms and kitchens. Especially, in the holy garden there are 5 Khao Vang trees over a hundred years old, of which 4 trees grow on rocks. The inside of the church attracts the eyes of others thanks to 32 colorful windows with rosary motifs, saints and cross symbols. Anyone who visits this place will admire the exquisitely sculpted motifs of the church.

Sacred meaning of the location

Sa Pa ancient stone church was chosen to be located facing the East, where the sun rises. This represents an extremely sacred meaning, which is the act of receiving the bright light and energy given by God. At the end of the church is the West direction, this is where Christ Kito was born and grew up.

The unique of Sa Pa stone church

Since its construction, Sa Pa church has always been the venue for many traditional cultural activities of the ethnic groups here. Right in front is the town center and rows of perennial pine trees, Every Saturday evening, Sa Pa stone church often holds unique cultural activities of ethnic minorities, which tourists often call the "love market".

Compared to other churches in Vietnam, Sa Pa stone church is quite modest in size, the exterior is simply decorated, but when you step inside, you will have a cozy, elegant feeling in a quite wide and deep space, different from the small appearance from the outside.

Sa Pa stone church is as small as the beautiful land of Sa Pa. Even though Sa Pa is expanding and there are more and more new tourist attractions, tourists coming here still want to have a photo taken in front of the church - a mark of an old time in Sa Pa./.

Text and photos: Q.Liên