Toudou

‌Beijing Wangfujing Church (East Church) was founded in the twelfth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1655) by two priests, Li Leisi and Anwensi. ‌These two priests preached in Sichuan in the late Ming Dynasty, and were later captured by Qing soldiers and brought to Beijing. With the blessing of Emperor Shunzhi, they built this church in 1655 at No. 74 Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, and named it St. Joseph's Church or Octagonal Church. ‌ The church was destroyed many times during the Kangxi, Jiaqing, and Guangxu years of the Qing Dynasty, and was finally rebuilt in the 30th year of Guangxu (1904). It became the second church built by the Jesuits in Beijing after the South Church, and it is also one of the four major Catholic churches in Beijing. one. The church covers an area of ​​about 1.18 hectares. The main building faces east and west, with a rectangular plane. The facade has three floors and some parts have four floors. It has a masonry structure, gray brick plain walls, and bluestone foundation. There are three crosses on the top of the hall. The hall is supported by 18 circular brick columns with a diameter of 0.65 meters and a square column base. There are many oil paintings such as the Crucifixion of Jesus hanging on both sides of the hall. It is a model of the fusion of Chinese and Western architectural styles. Wangfujing Church was announced as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council of the People's Republic of China in 2013.