Hong Jia Lou Catholic Church

Hongjialou Catholic Church is a double tower Gothic building, which was built in 1905. It is the largest Catholic Church in Jinan City and East China. It is also one of the three famous Catholic churches in China. It plays an important role in modern religious architecture in China. The whole building is magnificent and majestic. Such grand beauty and solemnity. Compared with many Christian churches and Catholic churches in Qingdao, they are absolutely inferior. When you enter the church, it has a large space and gives you a shock. There are windows on all sides. The interior light is very good. The afternoon sunlight passes through it. It's warm, cooperating with the ritual sense of religious places, and has a sense of spiritual purification. Hongjialou Catholic Church is the most beautiful western architecture in Jinan.

Hong Jia Lou Catholic Church

The full name of Hongjialou Catholic Church is Hongjialou Catholic Church, which is generally referred to as Honglou church. The church is located in the east of Jinan City, Shandong Province, No. 3, Hongjialou, Huayuan Road, Licheng District.

East of Shandong University Hongjialou campus, north of Honglou square, named after Hongjialou village.

The Hongjialou Catholic Church was built with the Boxer Indemnity of the Treaty of sinchou in 1900. It was designed by friar Pang Huixiang of Austria and built by Chinese workers. The construction was started in 1901 and completed in May 1905. The whole building faces east and West, with a typical Gothic facade and a cross in the plane, symbolizing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The building area is about 2600 square meters, and the church hall can accommodate 1000 people for religious activities.

When Hongjialou Catholic Church was built, it was the largest Catholic Church in Jinan City and North China, which played an important role in modern Chinese religious architecture.

In May 2006, it was listed as the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Historical evolution

Hongjialou Catholic Church was built in 1901 by the architect, friar Pang Huixiang, an Austrian Franciscan（ Bro.Corbinius Panger is responsible for the design and supervision.

In 1904, the German hired Lu Li to be the chief construction and director of the project. He took more than 100 masons in the village to take charge of the construction of the project. According to the drawings provided by him, he arranged and dispatched the procurement, stone carving, wood and tile work for three years,

It was completed in 1905.

In 1937, Japan invaded China and soon occupied Jinan. The parish was damaged and its members were mutilated. In September 1948, when the people's Liberation Army liberated Jinan, the Hongjialou area in the eastern suburbs was not spared. At that time, the large and small monasteries had been moved to wudamau miaofeli. Later, bombs fell in the cathedral, but the lobby did not suffer much damage.

In 1966, the Hongjialou Catholic Church was closed during the cultural revolution. Religious activities ceased from 1966 to 1983.

In April 1985, Jinan municipal government appropriated special funds to repair 6 crosses, 96 stone flower pagodas, murals, statues, ground, kneeling stool, altar, lamps and other facilities of the church. On December 25th of the same year, the church, which had been closed for nearly 20 years, reopened and held a grand mass.

In 2001, in the first TV series of architectural culture "the Centennial architectural classic of the Chinese nation" broadcast nationwide, it was appraised as one of the "100 modern classic buildings" by 26 academician level architectural masters nationwide.

Architectural features

Hongjialou Catholic Church mainly includes the Gothic style Sutra church, the priest's office building on the south side consistent with the Roman architecture of the monastery, and the single-layer masonry concrete building with eaves and veranda on the north side after the cultural revolution, which are respectively used as reception, nunnery, prayer room and other daily office and living places of the church. On the north side is the attached house with a four slope roof, which is connected with the sacristy and serves as the rest room and small prayer room for the priest.

The church block is on the east side and on the west side, narrow in front and wide in back. The church was built by Lu Licheng, a stonemason from Suncun village. The plane is Latin cross, and the outer wall is made of stone. On the west front, there are two tall steeple towers, as well as many small steeples. The west part is the affiliated room of the seminary, and the east part is in the form of a courtyard, which serves as the living area of students, mainly as dormitory, toilet, restaurant, classroom, library and office. The middle of the courtyard is enclosed into a small garden, and the open space in front of the garden is used as a place for students' activities. The attached houses enclosed on three sides form the whole Hongjialou Catholic Church complex. From the perspective of the overall layout of the church complex, the church adopts the symmetrical courtyard layout, with the courtyard gate, the main entrance, the middle hall and the altar on the central axis.

Main buildings

Exterior architecture

Hongjialou Catholic Church is a double tower Gothic building, which was expanded in 1906. It basically belongs to the Gothic architectural style of Europe from the 12th century to the early 16th century. It is very similar to Canterbury Cathedral, Notre Dame, Chartres Cathedral and Westminster Cathedral.

The church seat is narrow in front and wide in back, with many corners, many doors and many windows. The building area is about 2600 square meters. The altar is located at the east end. In the front, there are two spires, about 60 meters high, with dome like spires on the left and right. The three main doors are of pointed arch type, with layers of carving on them. In the back end, there are also two spires about 55 meters high, with the front and rear four towers corresponding to each other, all of which are built with blue bricks and stone. A pair of tall bell towers on both sides of the main entrance pass through multi-storey piers. In the church, there are two rows of longitudinal columns, the central corridor is tall, the ground is paved with blue stones, and the dome and walls are covered.

Although Hongjialou Catholic Church is a relatively pure western architecture, it can still be seen in some details that it has integrated Chinese traditional cultural elements. The roof of the main hall of the church is covered with traditional Chinese small black tiles. The stone walls on both sides of the middle door of the church are carved with two stone taps. The dragon's mouth is wide open, and the angry eyes are wide open. The carving is vivid and exaggerated, and the crane murals on the top of the church interior.

Interior landscape

The central corridor of the main hall of Hongjialou Catholic Church is tall and deep. The ground is paved with blue stones. There are two rows of square longitudinal columns (about 40). The capitals of the columns are carved with hollow flowers, and the elaborate patterns, carvings and characters on the dome and walls. The high dome is full of religious murals (mostly colorful flower patterns), and the slender column body is full of sculpture, full of religious atmosphere.

The church is also full of daylight, and its windows are inlaid with colored glass, which produces a strong light color effect under the sunlight.

On the south side of the church, there is a two-story ring Gallery building group with a bell tower as the center. The bell tower with a square spire is four stories high, and two Western-style ring Gallery buildings are built on the East and west sides.

protective measures

In April 1985, Jinan municipal government appropriated special funds to repair 6 crosses, 96 stone flower pagodas, murals, statues, floors, kneeling benches, sacrificial platforms, lamps and lanterns in the church.

In 1992, Hongjialou Catholic Church was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Shandong Province,

In 1995, it was announced as a key cultural relics protection unit at the provincial level.

On May 25, 2006, it was approved by the State Council to be listed in the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Value significance

Honglou Catholic Church is the first European style building built by "hoarding method" in Jinan and even Shandong Province. As early as before, Italian missionaries and French missionaries built monasteries around Hongjialou.

As a Gothic building, Hongjialou Catholic church not only has the light and upward characteristics of Gothic architecture, but also has the implicit and introverted architectural characteristics of China. Many details of the building reflect the integration of Gothic architecture and Chinese architectural culture. From the south elevation, the front part of the building is a U-shaped corridor, similar to the courtyard corridor in ancient China, but more simplified. Although the Catholic Church of Hongjialou has been constantly renovated, the main building materials are still green bricks and stone, vertical and straight. The outer window is made of red wooden frame with simplified decoration. It is divided into different areas with wooden strips and inlaid with glass inside. It is a combination of typical Chinese red and concise geometric lines. The inner surface of the church is paved with blue stone, the longitudinal columns are blue stone columns, and the rib beams are red stone bricks. The material style echoes, and the whole is harmonious and unified.

Although Hongjialou Catholic Church is a relatively pure western architecture, the influence of Chinese tradition can still be seen in some details. The roof of the main hall of the church is covered with traditional Chinese small black tiles. In addition, there are two stone taps carved on the upper stone walls on both sides of the middle door of the church. The dragon's mouth is wide open and the eyes are wide open. It is obvious that the traditional Chinese architectural culture is used for reference.

Traffic information

Bus: take Jinan bus No.1, No.10, No.11

No. 16, No. 30, No. 40, No. K55, No. 65, No. 65 interval, No. 71, No. 75, No. K91, No. 97, No. K98, No. 106, No. k107, No. 110, No. 118 and No. 201 buses are at Honglou square (public transport center)

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