Assumption Cathedral, Bangkok
The Assumption Cathedral is the principal Catholic church of Thailand, located at 23 Oriental Avenue, New Road, in the Bang Rak District of Bangkok. It is the main church of the Archdiocese of Bangkok. The cathedral hosted both of the papal visits to Thailand: Pope John Paul II in 1984 and Pope Francis in 2019.
Assumption Cathedral, Bangkok
Assumption Cathedral in 1922
Interior of the Assumption Cathedral
The eastern facade of the cathedral, taken from the neighbouring Assumption College
Bang Rak is a khwaeng (subdistrict) and historic neighbourhood in Bangkok's Bang Rak District. It lies between the Chao Phraya River and Charoen Krung Road, and was home to communities of European expatriates who settled in the area mostly during the second half of the 19th century as Siam opened up to the West. Among them were the Portuguese, French and British, whose embassies occupied extensive grounds in the area, Danes who founded shipping companies as well as the historic Oriental Hotel, and Catholic missionaries who established some of the first schools in the country on the grounds surrounding Assumption Cathedral.
Night view showing the Bang Rak area on the near side of the river
The Customs House formed an imposing edifice on the riverbank around the turn of the 19th–20th centuries
Nai Lert's seven-storey commercial complex, built in 1927, was the city's tallest building at the time.
The Bang Rak waterfront
