St. Joseph's Church, Shaoxing

St. Joseph's Church, Shaoxing
绍兴圣若瑟堂
St. Joseph's Church, Shaoxing in 2012
St. Joseph's Church, Shaoxing Location in Zhejiang
30°00′23″N 120°35′51″E
Location	Yuecheng District, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
Denomination	Roman Catholic
History
Status	Church
Founded	1871 (1871)
Founder(s)	Andre Rene Guillot
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Architectural type	Church building
Style	Romanesque architecture
Groundbreaking	1903
Completed	1907 (reconstruction)
Specifications
Materials	Granite, bricks
Administration
Diocese	Roman Catholic Diocese of Ningbo
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	绍兴圣若瑟堂
Traditional Chinese	紹興聖約瑟堂
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Shàoxīng Shèngyuēsètáng
St. Joseph's Church, Bazi Bridge
Simplified Chinese	八字桥圣若瑟堂
Traditional Chinese	八字橋聖約瑟堂
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Bāzìqiáo Shèngyuēsètáng

St. Joseph's Church, Shaoxing (Chinese: 绍兴圣若瑟堂), locally known as St. Joseph's Church, Bazi Bridge (八字桥圣若瑟堂), is a Roman Catholic church located in Yuecheng District of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China.

History

The church was originally built by French missionary Andre Rene Guillot (1820–1887) in 1871. An extension of the entire church complex was carried out in 1903 by Italian missionary Jaoques Chianello (1865–1927), and was completed in 1907. Soon after, Benevolence Hall, Nursing Home, Nursery, Peide Primary School, Convenient Cloth Factory and Convenient Match Factory was successively added to the church.

The church was occupied by the Shaoxing Opera Troupe during the ten-year Cultural Revolution, and was officially reopened to the public in July 1988. In May 1993, it was designated as a municipal cultural relic preservation organ by the Shaoxing government.

Gallery

Interior of the church

Further reading

• Yan Kejia (1 January 2004). Catholic Church in China [中国天主教]. ISBN 9787508505992.
• Liu Ping (1 August 2014). 中国天主教艺术简史 [Brief History of Chinese Catholic Art] (in Chinese). Beijing: China Fortune Press. ISBN 9787504751430.