Notre-Dame Cathedral and Central Post Office: Saigon's French Colonial Landmarks

Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica and the Saigon Central Post Office sit directly across from each other in District 1, both dating to the French colonial period and both still functioning as originally intended — one as an active Catholic cathedral, the other as a working post office. Together they're one of the most photographed pairings in the city, and since they're steps apart, visiting both takes almost no extra planning.

Built between 1863 and 1880 using materials shipped from France, including bricks from Marseille, the cathedral's twin bell towers have been a fixture of the Saigon skyline for well over a century. As of recent years the cathedral has been undergoing restoration work, so exterior scaffolding is common — check current status before planning a visit if seeing the full unobstructed facade matters to you.

Designed in the late 19th century in a style commonly (though not definitively) attributed to Gustave Eiffel's design school, the post office remains a fully functional postal facility today, with high arched ceilings, vintage maps of colonial Indochina on the walls, and old-fashioned wooden phone booths still standing as decorative relics.