Sapa Stone Church is the grey, Gothic-style church that stands on the main square of Sapa town, with Ham Rong mountain rising behind it. Officially it is the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, often called the Holy Rosary Church, and it is still a working Catholic parish. For most visitors it is also the first landmark they see in Sapa \u2014 and the place where all our Sapa jeep and motorbike tours begin.<\/p>\n
French missionaries arrived in the area at the end of the 19th century, and many sources date the first church here to 1895. The stone building you see today is usually said to have been built between about 1926 and 1935, when Sapa was a French hill station. Its walls are made of roughly cut local stone, bound with a mortar of sand, lime and sugar-cane molasses, and the bell tower rises about 20 metres over the square.<\/p>\n
After the colonial period the church was damaged, closed for many years and at times used as a storehouse. Restoration began in the 1990s and continued in several stages into the 2000s. Today you can see pointed arches, a steep roof, around 30 colourful stained-glass windows and a simple, bright interior with dark varnished wood.<\/p>\n
The square in front of the church is Sapa\u2019s living room. Hmong and Red Dao women sell handicrafts here, children play in the evening, and on Saturday nights the area hosts cultural performances inspired by the old cho tinh<\/em>, Sapa\u2019s famous Love Market, where young people from the hill villages once met to sing and court. Caf\u00e9s, the town lake, the night market and the street-food grills are all within a few minutes\u2019 walk.<\/p>\n Because it is so easy to find, Sapa Stone Church is the natural meeting point in town. Our guides, drivers and female riders meet guests here at 8:00 or 13:00, and we can also pick you up from hotels in the town centre.<\/p>\n Yes \u2013 it is the landmark and meeting heart of the town, and it is free. Built of rough local stone between about 1926 and 1935, when Sapa was a French hill station, the Gothic-style church has pointed arches, around 30 stained-glass windows and a 20 m bell tower, with Ham Rong mountain behind. The square in front is the town’s living room, liveliest on Saturday evenings, and it is where all our Sapa jeep and motorbike tours begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" La emblem\u00e1tica iglesia neog\u00f3tica de piedra oscura en la plaza mayor de Sapa: un monumento colonial franc\u00e9s de 1935, parroquia viva y epicentro de encuentro para explorar la cordillera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":113,"menu_order":7,"template":"","eta_destination":[10],"class_list":["post-190","eta_place","type-eta_place","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/eta_place"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place\/190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"eta_destination","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_destination?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Is Sapa Stone Church worth visiting?<\/h2>\n