Built in 1886 and consecrated on Christmas Eve of that year, the Neo-Gothic St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hanoi was one of the first places I visited on moving to Asia, and it immediately hit me that I wasn’t in Kansas (or, I suppose, Paris) anymore. Outside, it is incredibly dirty due to unabated, unfiltered traffic mere feet away, and likely years of neglect. Inside, it is simple, with no decor beyond its original stained glass windows imported from France, and the lightly maintained gold lacquer on the woodwork. There is a single local touch; the virgin Mary is sculpted enclosed in a palanquin and reclining sideways on a pillow, a bit more in the manner of a reclining Buddha than how we typically see her.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the church is that it was closed for 35 years; after the French withdrawal from Hanoi in 1954, Catholicism was persecuted until 1990, when the cathedral was permitted to reopen. Perhaps it’s worth popping in if you’re in the neighborhood anyway, and it’s nice to see in the background when you eat on a balcony of one of the restaurants on the square, but it’s not worth a dedicated visit.