The Luocuo Church () is a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

in Puxin Township,

Changhua County Changhua County (Mandarin Pinyin: ''Zhānghuà Xiàn''; Wade-Giles: ''Chang¹-hua⁴ Hsien⁴''; Hokkien POJ: ''Chiang-hòa-koān'' or ''Chiong-hòa-koān'') is the smallest county on the main island of Taiwan by area, and the fourth smallest ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

History

The church was originally established in 1875 when a local resident invited Father Vinte Gomar of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

to come to Puxin. Father Gomar then bought the land for 100 dollars in 1877. In 1882, Father Celedonio Arranz took over the work and built the first church structure. In 1906, an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

devastated Central Taiwan and destroyed the church structure. In 1912, Father Manuel Prat built the second church structure. In 1975, the old structure was torn down and rebuilt into the third generation structure. The construction was completed in 1996. The church was designated as historical structure on 10 April 2002.

Architecture

The church is situated in a complex which consists of the church itself, artifact display room, dormitory, office building and a stone plaque. The current church structure is a red brick southern

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

style architecture, which includes its rooms, doors, windows and walls. It combines

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and Romanesque architectural elements. The façade of the artifact display room is filled with red brick walls and raised brick door. The building displays documents and artifacts, such as the first Latin alphabet printing press in Taiwan, an old church bell and Chinese hymns.

References

{{commons category 1875 establishments in Taiwan Buildings and structures in Changhua County Roman Catholic churches in Taiwan 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Taiwan

History

Architecture

See also

References