Phat Ziem Stone Church

Where Eastern and Western architectural styles converge.

- Le Bich

Located 28km south of Ninh Binhcity, the church occupies a 117m wide, 243m long area at the center of Phat township. The complex includes many structures such as Ho pond, the Square Temple, the Great Church, Four Side Chapels, the Stone Chapel and three artificial stone caves. Early in the 20th century, Phat Ziem was just a muddy alluvial area, overgrown with sedge. In 1828, Nguyen Cong Tru, a resourceful mandarin and a famous poet, was sent by Hue royal court to the North as the “Ground Breaking Emissary” to create new territories. He established Tien Hai district (Thai Binh) and Kim Son district (Ninh Binh), today very prosperous regions, deserving of the titles to be called the “sea of silver” and “mountain of gold”, respectively.’ Phat Ziem means “generating the beauty”..

The Phat Ziem Church complex is arranged on grounds shaped as the character “Imperial”, a very typical Oriental style with a lake at the front and a mountain at the back, which in the minds of the Eastern Asians create the sense of beauty, fertility, steadiness and lasting peace as it is “facing the water and leaning on a mountain.”