The heart of the stone chamber Cathedral

Located on Yide road in the center of Guangzhou City, Shishi Shengxin cathedral is the most magnificent and characteristic Cathedral in the Catholic Diocese of Guangzhou. The church was built in 1863 and completed in 1888. It took 25 years to complete and has a history of more than 130 years. All the walls and pillars of the church are made of granite. Around the church, trees are evergreen all year round, flowers are surrounded and colorful.

The heart of the stone chamber Cathedral

Shishi Shengxin cathedral is located in Yide Road, the center of Guangzhou city. The Sacred Heart Cathedral was officially inaugurated on June 18, 1863. It took 25 years to build. It is the most magnificent and characteristic Cathedral in the Catholic Diocese of Guangzhou. The Sacred Heart Cathedral is designed by French designers and built by Chinese craftsmen.

With a total area of 2754 square meters, the cathedral is 35 meters wide from east to west, 78.69 meters long from north to south, and 58.5 meters high from the ground to the spire. It was built in 1861 at a cost of 400000 francs, comparable to the world-famous Notre Dame in France.

The heart of the stone chamber cathedral is the largest church in the Catholic Diocese of Guangzhou. It is one of the most magnificent existing twin minaret Gothic buildings in China. It is also one of the four all stone Gothic churches in the world (the other three are Notre Dame, Westminster and Cologne). Because all the walls and columns of the church are made of granite, it is also called "stone" "The stone chamber" or "the sacred heart of Jesus in the stone chamber" or "the stone chamber Catholic Church".

In 1996, it was announced as a national key cultural relic protection unit. It is a key cultural relic protection unit in Guangdong Province.

Historical origin

When the second Opium War broke out in 1856, the British and French allied forces captured Guangzhou and razed the governor's office to the ground. At that time, mingjizhang, a missionary appointed by the Vatican, took a fancy to the foundation of the flattened governor's office and asked him to build a church. However, Lao Chongguang, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, refused his request, so mingjizhang asked the French commander to come forward, In 1861, according to the unequal treaty between China and France, the French went to trade ports and rented land to build their own chapel.

Mingjizhang once went back to France to meet Emperor Napoleon III, and got 500000 francs. The earth work of Sacred Heart Cathedral was started on August 26, 1861, and a grand foundation laying ceremony was held on December 8, 1863. Mingji chapter also specially transported one kilogram of soil from Rome and Jerusalem, expressing that Catholicism was founded in Jerusalem in the East and rose in Rome in the West. "Jerusale m1863" in the east corner of the church and "rome1863" in the west corner are still clearly visible. In 1864, the Church of France specially invited two architects vonutrin and Humbert to preside over the design, imitating the design of St. crotilde in Paris. By 1888, when the church was completed, Cai Xiao had changed from a young man in his twenties to an old man in his fifties. But this is a relatively short time for church construction. Notre Dame in Paris was built 87 years ago, while the main church in Cologne in Germany was built seven centuries ago.

The stone chamber experienced two major damages

During the first Anti Japanese War, a Japanese plane collided with the lightning rod at the top of the tower, hit the Canghai teahouse in front of the church, and exploded. Part of the stained glass of Napoleon's time was shattered. The second time was regarded as subversive destruction. In the cultural revolution, the stone chamber was greatly damaged, all religious oil paintings were torn off, and the rest of the stained glass of Napoleon's time after the Anti Japanese war was smashed All the Scriptures and sermons were piled up into hills with kneeling benches and burned in the church. Some of the stone walls and pillars were burned and burst. After several repairs, there were still burning marks. The lion's head drain on the roof of the building was smashed with a hammer. During the cultural revolution, it once became a garbage disposal site.

In July 1979, the municipal government re implemented the religious belief policy and began to prepare to reopen the stone chamber. The majority of believers live a normal religious life. Believers and tourists from all over the world also visit the stone chamber.

Church renovation

After the completion of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, it was overhauled three times

The first time was in the 1920s, when the roof of the stone chamber, the main beam, the stairs of the East and West towers and other wooden structures were all changed into concrete reinforced structures. The second time was in the 1980s, when the Religious Affairs Bureau of the State Council successively allocated 150000 yuan to maintain the church. However, due to long-term wind and rain, rain leakage and disrepair, the church was scarred again, and some of its structures and components were seriously damaged. In July 2004, the third overhaul of the stone chamber church was started, which was completed and reopened in the autumn of 2006. The cost of this overhaul is 20 million yuan. Before the overhaul, the stone chamber church could only use some ordinary glass instead of flower windows. One of the highlights of this restoration is to replace all of them with 98 pieces of special glass specially made from the Philippines. These glasses are "more expensive than gold", with a total cost of 4.3 million yuan for 700 square meters.

The glass images are based on the stories and representatives in the Old Testament and the New Testament, depicting about 60 biblical stories, including the birth of Jesus, the baptism of Jesus and the last supper. During the overhaul, the church was re installed with a mechanical clock, which is now in operation. In addition, the stairs, passageways and beams of the church were renovated. The granite inside and outside walls were renovated and cleaned by hand, and the stone pillars, zenith, altar, confession Pavilion, chanting tower, lighting lines, lights and other indoor facilities were repaired.

Layout structure

The Sacred Heart Church originally covers an area of more than 6000 square meters. Apart from the church, there are also hospitals, seminaries, secondary and primary schools and other buildings. The existing church, Bishop's mansion and the East-West Yiduo church are square in front of the door and surrounded by shops and dwellings. The plan of the church is Latin cross, sitting north to south, divided into three layers.

There are three pointed arches on the bottom floor. Outside the door frame, there are seven pairs of column lines and seven pointed arch ribs. In the middle, there are rose windows with a diameter of 6 meters and stone carving hollowed out. The Latin words "jenuslem 1863" and "roma1863" are engraved under the walls on the East and west sides respectively.

In the middle of the second floor is a round rose window carved with stone. On the third floor, there is a bell tower, with a pair of octagonal pointed towers. The top of the tower is steep and steep. The bell tower is equipped with four large bronze clocks from France. On the west, South and north sides of the West Tower, there are clocks with Roman characters. On the East Tower, there is a set of bronze clocks named after the Virgin Mary. In the hall, there are two rows of longitudinal beams to divide the space into the middle hall and the side gallery, and the cross vault with pointed ribs is used, The outer walls on the East and west sides are built with flying arches and flying buttresses. The pointed arched windows, rose windows, parapets and interior decoration of the whole building are fine. The head of the beam column is decorated with deformed ears of wheat, and the beam column bases are combined to show that they are as solid as a rock. The water outlet is a traditional Chinese style stone lion.

The front of the stone chamber church is a typical left and right three section pattern and the upper and lower three section pattern. The base is three pointed arches. The central gate is the largest, and the left and right gates are symmetrical. The three gates and the horizontal gates on the East and west sides are laminated pointed gates, which have a strong perspective effect. There are exquisite stone carvings on the lintel. In the middle is a huge rose window. The symmetrical windows on both sides and the two windows on the third floor are closed palm type. They are the same dark red as the gate, and they are also decorated with sharp coupons. Between the upper and lower parts, there are orderly arranged railings.

Walking into the church, there are 10 huge stone columns on the left and right to support the crossing and sharp rising pointed arch, which makes the whole church keep the upward feeling consistent with the appearance. The top of the hall is highest in the middle and slightly lower on both sides. From the gate to the altar, due to the arrangement of stone columns and the pointed arch structure of the top of the hall, the whole hall has a sense of upward and forward extension, rendering a solemn religious atmosphere.

In the front, East and west of the stone chamber, there are round rose windows with a diameter of 7 meters, which are inlaid with dark red, dark blue and purple yellow glass. The center of the window flower is a small cross, with 24 radial petals. There are 12 small circles on the top of the petals, and there are 12 small crosses between the circles, forming a rose pattern. The lattice windows on the front gate and on the walls around are all of the palm type. The stained glass windows have been damaged for hundreds of years, and are often repaired with domestic blue-green glass. At that time, the glass windows were painted with biblical stories.

The plane of the stone chamber is Latin cross. In ancient times, the word "ten" was the symbol of the sun and fire all over the world, that is, the symbol of light; later it became the symbol of Christianity. The plane of the stone chamber adopts Latin cross, but the two wings are less prominent. This is a common plane form in French churches, which is significantly different from that in English churches. The Church of the Latin cross plane is also compared to a mysterious human body. The two side halls on the left and right are equivalent to two arms; the position of the choir is equivalent to a person's chest, which is the heart part; and the nave and the side aisles on both sides are equivalent to the lower part of the body. The back hall symbolizes the head and brain. The apse represents the spiritual space of the Christian Holy Spirit, while the rest of the church represents the material space of the secular world.

architectural style

Gothic style: the front of the double tower stone chamber Sacred Heart Cathedral is a pair of towering spires, symbolizing the spirit

Chinese PinYin : Shi Shi Sheng Xin Da Jiao Tang