French missionary Paul-François Puginier, apostolic vicar of West Tonkin, built St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi after obtaining permission from the colonial French administration. Construction began in 1884, and it was consecrated on December 24, 1886. The architects sought to emulate Notre Dame de Paris, and the article calls the style Gothic Revival.
It stands on the abandoned site of Báo Thiên Pagoda. The facade has two square towers, 103 feet (31 meters) high, each fitted with five bells. The walls are granite slabs, with tall pointed stained glass windows produced in France and a rib-vaulted ceiling.
After the 1954 Geneva Accords the church suffered decades of persecution, and the cathedral stayed closed until Mass resumed on Christmas Eve 1990. A major renovation ran from July 2020 to May 2022. A pipe organ with 1,850 pipes was installed in 2022.
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