The unique wooden church in Kon Tum

Coming to Kon Tum, you would not help visiting the famous wooden church of nearly 100 years old, which is located right in the middle of Kon Tum town. With the architecture style, an interior decoration mixed between the local and western culture, the church attracts many tourists inland and abroad coming to contemplate.

Church in Kon Tum - Photo: Quang Huy

The official name of the church is the head church of Kon Tum, but people here used to call it wooden church as almost of this religious construction is made of wood. Designed in Roman architecture style combined with the shape of house on stilts of Tây Nguyên community, the church includes of 5 main parts: the cross tower of 25m height, two roofs – upper and lower – tiled with slate tiles, the walls, dome and the floor. All are made of prestigious kinds of wood such as ironwood, rosewood, etc. The most impressive is that the church includes more than 100 pillars arranged in four rows: two rows inside the room and two others close to the walls. All the pillars are equal in shiny black with diameter of 40cm.

The interior is decorated with wood combined with brocade and tree cover, which express the skillfulness of the minor ethnic artists, but arranged in European style, making a strange feeling to the visitors. In overall, the wooden church is just like a giant cross.

Inside the church, there is a display room introducing about the custom and tradition of Tây Nguyên minor ethnic groups.

Not far from the church is friary of Kon Tum built by the first diocesan of Kon Tum in 1935, with similar structure as a church but with larger scale.

In visiting and studying about the church, the visitors will be amazed by the various cultural and historical history about the Southern land of Tây Nguyên.