Kontum - the old seminary

Yesterday I wrote about the ethnic Bah Nar (aka Ba Na) villages around Kontum. Back in Kontum town, there are impressive remnants of the French colonial era missionary presence. For a small place, the Catholic Church owns a remarkable amount of prime real estate in Kontum. French missionaries established a permanent base here in 1848. In those days the area was almost totally inhabited by ethnic minorities. The ethnic Vietnamese (known as Kinh) population was very small. The photo features the 1935 seminary building. Its size would indicate that there must have been lots of seminarians. It’s one of the largest church complexes I’ve seen in Vietnam. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to locate much information about the history. The impact of the church’s missionary work is still very visible today throughout this region. The ethnic minority villages I visited, all featured a simple Catholic Church. This old seminary is home to an ethnic minority museum that’s well worth a look. My guess is that the museum dates back before the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 but nobody could tell me for sure. This is a nice stop - check out the grounds and architecture as well as the museum.