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In the north of Shanghai, in the Xujiahui area, stands the majestic construction of the functioning Catholic Cathedral of St. Ignatius. In the past, it was the largest Catholic temple in the Far East. The first divine service in the Chinese language took place here. The Gothic style of the temple looks very impressive against the background of neighboring exotic eastern buildings

St. Ignatius Cathedral, named after the founder of the Jesuit order of Saint Ignatius de Loyola, was built by the French Jesuits in 1905-1910. The old church here operated as early as the 17th century, when the missionary Matteo Ricci converted the Chinese Emperor of the Ming Dynasty into Catholicism, who invited the Jesuits to his country. The English architect William Doyle worked on the project,

The St. Ignatius Cathedral, named after the founder of the Jesuit order of Saint Ignatius de Loyola, was built by French Jesuits in 1905-1910
Since 1950, St. Ignatius Cathedral was also received still proud of the status of the cathedral of the Shanghai Diocese.
The Cultural Revolution of 1966 did a lot of harm to the cathedral - the heart of the mission center with a haven for orphans, a library, a publishing house, a school, even a weather station. The spiers were torn from the very church, pulled down the ceiling, smashed and destroyed the beautiful stained-glass windows and organized a state grain depot for a decade.

This barbarous attitude to the cathedral had a long and difficult time remedying in subsequent years. In the late 70's. The last century is incomplete, but the revival of the cathedral allowed to open it for believers. A little later, in the 80's, restored spiers. In 1989, Aloysius Jin Luxian, the Chinese bishop, conducted the first service in Chinese.

St. Ignatius Cathedral in Shanghai

The revival of the temple continues to this day. In 2002, non-permanent glass panes began to be replaced by new stained-glass windows created by Wo Ye, an artist from Beijing, along with the San Francisco-Franciscan Jesuit father Thomas Thomas. On the stained-glass windows, besides Chinese iconography, Chinese hieroglyphs appeared.

Today we see the construction of a temple of red brick with granite, covered with a copper roof. On both sides of the central part of the cathedral (from the north and south) are two 60-meter Gothic towers. A large round window above the main entrance is made in the form of a flower and decorated with glass of different colors. The facades are decorated with sculptures of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, very beautiful porticos, archivolts and wimpergums.

The interior decoration of the cathedral captivates with its royal lancet ceiling vault, stretching into the sky, a bright colored altar with a sculpture of the Virgin Mary with a baby in her arms, chic stained glass and images biblical plots on the walls

Every Sunday, in the beautiful St. Ignatius Cathedral in Shanghai with a capacity of more than 2500 people, there are services in English and Chinese.

How to get to

Address: China, Shanghai, Xuhui, Puxi Road, 158. You can reach the St. Ignatius Cathedral by metro to Xujiahui Station (Xiuzhoui). The temple is located north of the main stadium of Shanghai (as a landmark)

Opening hours

St. Ignatius Cathedral is open Monday to Saturday from 7:00 to 18:00, on Sunday from 6:00 to 18:00. The entrance is free.