St. Joseph's Cathadral in Hanoi, Vietnam

After lunch we started out to find St. Joseph's Cathedral. Construction began in 1884, with an architectural style resembling the Notre Dame de Paris. The church was one of the first structures built by the French colonial government in French Indochina when it opened in December 1886. It is the oldest church in Hanoi. After the Viet Minh took control of North Vietnam following the Geneva Accords in 1954, the Catholic Church suffered decades of persecution. Priests were arrested, and church property was seized and expropriated. St. Joseph's Cathedral was not spared; it was closed down until Christmas Eve of 1990, when Mass was permitted to be celebrated there again.