Thread: The Bangkok Catholic Church Santa Cruz

Jesus, Joeseph and Mary, they got those Catholic buggers in Bangkok aswell, next to the Santa Cruz Church they also have a Catholic school preparing the next generation of Catholics to send amongst us.

Actually there are quite afew farang orientated churches in Bangkok including the Holy Rosary Church, Immaculate Conception Church and Assumption Cathedral which are all pretty famous and pretty damn old.

Getting to Santa Cruz Church is easy, either River boat on the Chao Phraya to Memorial Bridge Pier, or make your way to Memorial Bridge and you will see it on the Thonburi side of the river. Remember, the river boats are cheap as chips and no traffic jams as on the roads with taxis, or rip offs as in on the road with tuk tuks.



I do have to admit though that the architecture does make a nice change to the usual Thai buildings, I mean this building actually looks nice and seems to have been looked after, ie painted and stuff on a regular basis, just wish the natives could do that with there own buildings, a bit of civic pride could go a long way in Thailand, never happen though, just have to keep looking for nice farang areas if you want some where nice.



The gardens look nice, then again us Euro trash are reknwned for our gardens, we do like them to look nice, they aren't our local rubbish tip and dog poo areas.

Is that you Jesus hiding in them bushes?



Not sure about the fake storks, think a Thai sneaked them in, or maybe someone who used to have gnomes?

Whose the bird then? Thought you wern't into that sex stuff, at least with adult women anyway.



Jesus don't look too happy in this one.

If your gonna be here for a while I'll make you a nice cuppa, must be hot out there in that sun.



Mary The Virgin is it? God never did get round to explaining about the birds and the bees to you Jesus did he, anyway your learning of this subject is down to your parents, I'm not getting involved.



See you have one of those sheep catchers staffs, God always did like a laugh and a joke. I assume he hasn't told you yet then Jesus A Welsh God indeed.



Santa Cruz Church (Wat Kudichin),

112 Tesaban 1 Rd (Memorial Bridge Pier),
☎ +66 2 466-0347.

The Santa Cruz Church is an interesting Catholic church right at the banks of the Chao Phraya River.

After the fall of Ayutthaya by a Burmese invasion, King Taksin commanded that the peoples who escaped had to settle down in Thonburi, the new capital of Siam.

The King dictated that the Chinese group had to settle down around the area of Wat Kalayanamit, while the Portuguese people would have their houses built along the bank of the Chao Phraya River.

The Portuguese had given military support to King Taksin to help him drive out the Burmese from Siam.

In recognition of their support, King Taksin granted the Portuguese a plot of land for the building of a church.

The first Santa Cruz Church was a wooden church built in 1770.

When that church got into a state of decay, a new Chinese-style church was built here, as it was nearby the Chinese community that stayed at Wat Kalayanamit.

That church was called "Kudichin church" (Chinese church), and the Portuguese who settled here were called "Farang Kudichin", which means "Westerners at the Chinese shrine".

In 1916, the third and current Santa Cruz Church was built during the reign of King Rama IV.

The church has a magnificent Italian-style architecture. The community around it still feels authentic, and is the birthplace of a famous kind of cupcake, the "Khanom Farang Kudichin".

Also the Portugese introduced these pink coloured rose flower type sweets/cakes/desserts called khanom ar-lua, which are made from flour with a hard sugary coating, these are still available to this day.



For a bit of variation here is a photo of Bangkoks Holy Rosary Church, quite smart looking isn't it, makes a change from red and gold coloured religious buildings.



Credit to extras for that photo.

Looking for the largest Cathedral inThailand? Then its out of Bangkok you want to go and down to Chanthaburi to see The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Catholic Church Chanthaburi)



Credit to Bangyai for the above photo.