An ancestral house (Vietnamese: nhà thờ họ, chữ Nôm: 茹悇𢩜 or Vietnamese: từ đường, chữ Hán: 祠堂) is a Vietnamese traditional place of worship of a clan or its branches which is established by male descendants of the paternal line. This type of worship place is most commonly seen in northern Vietnam as well as middle Vietnam.
After a clan is divided into branches by males of paternal line, the head of the main branch of a clan (trưởng tộc in Vietnamese) would lead the place where all clan members worship the primitive ancestor and store the primary genealogical book. This place would be called nhà thờ đại tôn (lit. ''primary lineage hall' or 'main clan ancestral house''). Other breaches of a clan would have their own nhà thờ họ in which the creators of these branches are worshipped; these nhà thờ họ are called nhà thờ chi họ (lit. 'branch of clan ancestral house').
