The Wanchin Church, officially Wanchin Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (), is a

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

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 Wanjin Village, Wanluan Township,

Pingtung County Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pin ...

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 ...

. It's also the first basilica church in Taiwan.

History

Qing Dynasty

The

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

in Wanchin was established by priest Fernando Sainz, who was affiliated with 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 ...

. The church was originally constructed as a simple mud church in May 1863. On 13 October 1865, the church was heavily destroyed by an earthquake. It was then rebuilt with a bigger size and completed on 8 December 1870 when it was inaugurated.

Republic of China

The church underwent renovation in the 1950s and 1960s by different missionaries. On 20 July 1984, the church was conferred the title of

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

, making it the first church in Taiwan to receive such title. In 1991, the Immaculate Conception Dominican Residence was built on the church ground. In 1994, an activity center was also built within the church area. On 3 August 2016, the church was vandalized when a mentally ill man set a fire to a wooden statue of the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

inside the building.

Architecture

The current building of the church was built with Spanish fortress architecture.

References

1863 establishments in Taiwan Basilica churches in Taiwan Roman Catholic churches completed in 1863 Religious buildings and structures in Pingtung County {{Taiwan-church-stub

History

Qing Dynasty

Republic of China

Architecture

See also

References