St. Paul's Church ( zh, t=聖保羅堂, s=圣保罗堂) is a Three Self church in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

. St. Paul's was established in 1912 on Taiping Road, in the south of the old city centre, which was at that time one of the most densely populated parts of the city. It was founded by the American Episcopalian missionary G.M.B. Gill. In 1922 a second, larger building was built next to the first building to be used as the new church building. During the

Nanjing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the ...

and the following Japanese occupation of Nanjing from 1937 to 1941 St. Paul's was one of the churches in Nanjing that provided shelter for refugees. When the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

was founded in 1949, the building was one of the four churches in Nanjing that remained to be used as a church. In 1966 however, at the onset of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

, the church stopped functioning. In 1984 the building was returned to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, and from 1985 was re-opened again. The church is built in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, with polished bricks. The building has been appointed as 'Municipality Protected Historic Site' by the city of Nanjing.

References

* * Religious buildings and structures in Nanjing Former Anglican churches in China Three-Self Patriotic Movement Churches in Jiangsu 20th-century Anglican church buildings 20th-century churches in China Christian organizations established in 1912 {{PRChina-church-stub