The Cathedral of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows (), also known as the Yangjiaqiao Catholic Church (), is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

located in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

, China. It is known for its architectural hybridity between Chinese and western styles. The cathedral is located at 1162 Sanxiang Road, Suzhou.

History

According to the Suzhou Government, the local parish started as the residence of a Catholic merchant and a gathering place for local Catholics in the Qianlong Era of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. There used to be a previous church building on the same site built in 1866 informally called "Hall of the Fishing Boats" (). The current church building began its construction in 1893 under the leadership of the French priest Joseph Deffond. In 1949, the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Suzhou The Roman Catholic Diocese of Suzhou ( la, Dioecesis Suceuvensis, ) is a diocese located in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, under the Ecclesiastical Province of Nanjing. It covers the entire city of Suzhou. History Ming Dynasty The Italian Jesuit m ...

was established, and the church became the cathedral of the diocese. In 1958, the cathedral was appropriated as a school for

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

education. It was used for other purposes in the 1960s before being returned to the Catholic Church in 1981. The cathedral suffered a flood in 1991 and became listed as a culturally protected site () of Suzhou that year. In 2000, a traditional gallery and greeneries were added.

Architecture

File:Suzhou - Cathedral of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows - 4.jpg, The gates of the cathedral File:Suzhou - Cathedral of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows - 15.jpg, The interior of the cathedral File:Suzhou - Cathedral of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows - 12.jpg, The cathedral employs Chinese architecture and western symbols The cathedral building is 44.9 meters long and 29.3 meters wide. The roof ridge has a height of 10.9 meters. According to Pan et al., the cathedral employs a "hybridity" of architectural styles. The cathedral used Suzhou traditional building methods, and has a westwork in the style of a paifang. However, it has a European open timber roof structure, very similar to the one of

St Nicholas Church, North Walsham St Nicholas Church is a parish church in the Church of England in the centre of the Norfolk town of North Walsham. The building is a well known landmark, notable for its collapsed tower. History The present church was commenced in about 1330 ...

. Its pillars are wooden on the inside but made of bricks on the outside. In 1982 and 2000, the cathedral underwent renovations, in which the

IHS Christogram A Christogram ( la, Monogramma Christi) is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldest Christograms is the ...

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

, icons,

Corinthian capitals The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order w ...

and stone arches were added.

References

Notes

Citations

External links