Xujiahui Catholic Church, Shanghai

The Xujiahui Catholic Church, once the largest church in the Far East, is located on Puxi East Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai. It is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shanghai. St. Ignatius of Loyola is its patron saint, so it is also called St. Ignatius Church. The architectural style is French Gothic Revival during the neoclassical period. The church was designed by British architect Total in 1904, and construction began in 1905. The French Shanghai Construction Company started construction in 1906, and a Gothic twin-tower building was completed on October 22, 1910. The main building of the church is five stories high and is a stone-column brick-and-wood building with a cross-shaped floor plan. The two bell towers face each other from north to south. The bell towers are 57 meters high, and the height of the spires is 31 meters. They look like two crosses piercing the sky, making it a landmark building in western Shanghai. There are 64 columns in the church that are carefully carved from Jinshan stone, and each of them is composed of ten small columns. The main altar statue was originally a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, but was later replaced by a statue of St. Ignatius and eight saints. The total area of ​​the church is about 2,670 square meters, and the building area is about 6,670 square meters. The church is spacious and bright, and can accommodate 3,000 people for religious activities at the same time. Therefore, it was once called "the first cathedral in the Far East." The above papers are personal opinions.