Ancient and simple church with architecture : Tung Son

This is one of the oldest surviving churches in Da Nang named Tung Son. It doesn't date back a few hundred years, in Vietnam that's very rare. The oldest church with only 130 years old is Mang Lang church (Phu Yen). Perhaps the key to a long-lasting architecture, in addition to being destroyed by humans and natural disasters, has two more factors: restoration and repair and construction materials. Experiencing many wars, intermittent restoration and repair, poor local construction techniques and
materials probably make Vietnam not possess many ancient churches. When I came to Songshan Church, my first impression was that it was too old and dangerous because of the deterioration of the walls. But the rustic look, old by that time also looks very attractive. It is located in Hoa Nhon commune, Da Nang city, about 20km from the city center. It is fortunate that it is located on the outskirts (by the mountains) of this crowded city. It will be peaceful and cool more in line with the outside image it gives.

Built in 1892 and completed in 1895, influenced by some details of European architectural style, in general, it is still more simple and pure Vietnamese. Today it is not only a free tourist attraction, it is also chosen as the background for shimmering wedding photos or other types of photography. They may forget to contribute freely to the church to maintain and take care of the surrounding grounds.

Its architecture is as simple as a large, elongated, straight community house without a continuous bell tower. Even the end of the church is often built with tall walls and decorated with statues and diverse patterns, but it only has a modest height with a few patterns such as arrows and spires and a statue. old small simple. I think it is about 25m long and about 8m wide excluding the two side corridors, which is easy to understand because in those years this land had very few indigenous people besides those who reclaimed the land. The wings of the curved arch were familiar to all French colonial churches. With 3 doors at the end of the wooden church, which is quite small, the three arches on the door have been removed because they are planning to replace the newer doors because the doors are too old and termite.

I met and chatted with a middle-aged man nearby who was sitting under a tree. It is known that he is a resident nearby and everyone in the parish is building a monument and an artificial cave next to the campus. He said he is currently repairing the doors and roof trusses, this is also the first time since it was built, has not been damaged by war other than by the legions of chisels. Inside, he described, there were only wooden ceilings and trusses, the altars and decorations were also made of wood, only the pillars supporting the roof were built of burnt bricks at that time. I'll wait until it's completely restored to go inside.

Externally, it is built with baked bricks produced there, the foundation is about 0.5m high above the ground, it is simple with layers of stone, the outside of the wall is covered with mixed mortar layers, now covered with moss. it becomes old. It is not possible to require a technique of mixing mortar and materials as durable as modern times, because some rows of bricks are broken or broken. I rubbed the white mortar with my hand and found that the white particles easily popped out and were uneven in size. Presumably they used white lime to mix with the sand. It sounds a bit questionable about the safety of the walls but it still stands after all these years and continues to be kept. Sometimes rose flower shapes add to the new breeze in the general architecture.

The roof is tiled with wooden trusses covering both sides of the corridor. In the sunlight it was so black that I couldn't tell if it was a dull, mossy brick brown or if it was the original black.

There are some broken tiles visible from the ground, signaling a new layer of mantle is coming. Fortunately, I was able to witness the old in time. Some cracks in the wall at the top of the church going from the roof down may also be due to the large wooden blocks used to decorate the interior of the church. The campus is not too spacious but cool thanks to the large trees. A children's activity and education house was recently built, which is more spacious, and they are also renewing and expanding the grounds on the right with flower gardens and caves and other holy statues.

But I think its value is attracted by the old things that are as simple as the new church needs more work to protect and preserve it as much of the old as possible. Hopefully it will keep its beauty.

Thanks, the picture was taken with gopro 8

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