Heritage site
Phnom Penh Cathedral
Phnom Penh Cathedral, the Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King, was a French Gothic church in Phnom Penh that the Khmer Rouge tore down in 1975.[1][2] It was also known as Notre-Dame.[3]
The church
The cathedral was built under the French protectorate, which began in 1863, and was finished in 1927.[1][4] Its brick front had a tall arch with a large Celtic cross pattern, and a sandstone statue of Mary stood over the door. A bishop's residence and a library stood beside it.[1][4]
It could hold up to 10,000 people.[2][5] The historian Thierry de Roland Peel called it the most beautiful building in Phnom Penh.[3] In the civil war, two Khmer Rouge rockets hit it in 1972 and did little harm; another, in 1974, damaged the refectory.[1]
Destruction
The Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975.[6] They set out to wipe away signs of capitalism, religion and the colonial past, and the cathedral, which stood for all three, was the first building they pulled down.[1][7] They took it apart brick by brick, down to its foundations.[3][2] The opinion piece from Voice of America Cambodia states that it was blown up.[5] The iron bars from its walls were pulled out; some became nails, and some were made into shackles for prisoners.[7]
Only the cathedral's bells survived. They are shown at the National Museum of Cambodia. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications stands on the site.[1] The cathedral was one of 73 Catholic churches across the country that were abandoned, and the Church's lands were seized.[3][2]
Return and a new church
Catholics began to return to Cambodia in 1992, with the United Nations peacekeepers. In 1993 the government gave back the land of the old seminary, which became the parish of St. Joseph, and Mass was held in the seminary's former French colonial school.[3][2] Work on a new church there began in 2021, paid for by Catholics in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam with help from the Paris Foreign Missions Society. It cost about US$3 million, mixes Khmer and Catholic architecture, and seats 700.[2][3]
Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, the Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh, consecrated St. Joseph Church on May 2, 2026, before more than 2,000 Catholics. The building is 49 meters long and 30 meters wide.[6] It was the first church built in Cambodia since the civil war that began in 1967.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Radio Veritas Asia, Cambodian Christ the King Cathedral: Systematically and completely destroyed by Khmer Rouge (July 8, 2024)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Le Petit Journal Cambodge, La cathédrale de Phnom Penh se relève 50 ans après sa destruction (April 5, 2025; in French)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 UCA News, Luke Hunt, A church rises 50 years after Khmer Rouge destroyed Notre Dame (2025)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Wikipedia, Roman Catholic Cathedral of Phnom Penh (undated)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Cambodia Daily, from Voice of America Cambodia, Opinion: Khmer Rouge Genocide of Notre Dame Cathedral in Cambodia (December 25, 2018)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 UCA News, New Cambodian church a testament to the growth of faith (May 6, 2026)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Aleteia, After 50 years, Cambodia about to have a cathedral (April 15, 2025)