Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

The largest Catholic church in Thailand, built by Vietnamese refugees

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception stands on the east bank of the Chanthaburi River, directly across from the old town. It is the biggest Catholic church in Thailand — a Gothic-revival building with twin spires, completed in 1909 by Vietnamese refugees who had been displaced by religious persecution at home and welcomed in Siam by King Chulalongkorn.

The community is still here. The cathedral runs services in Vietnamese as well as Thai, and the surrounding neighbourhood feels noticeably different from the rest of Chantaburi — narrower streets, older houses, more crucifixes than spirit-houses. Inside the church, a statue of the Virgin is decorated with thousands of locally mined sapphires donated by parishioners over the years.

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The cathedral's twin spires were cut down in 1909 to disguise the building as something less Catholic and avoid French naval bombardment during the colonial Franco-Siamese border crisis. They were finally restored in 2009 — exactly a century later — using money raised by the local Vietnamese Catholic community.