Holy Saviour's Cathedral is a former

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

Xicheng District Xicheng () is a district of the city of Beijing. Its cover the western half of the old city (largely inside the 2nd Ring Road; the eastern half is Dongcheng District, Beijing, Dongcheng District), and has 1,106,214 inhabitants (2020 Census). It ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

History

English evangelism started in Beijing in 1862 with the arrival of missionaries John Shaw Burdon and Samuel Isaac Schereschewsky. In 1880, the

Diocese of North China The Diocese of North China ( zh, t=聖公會華北教區, w=Shêng Kung Hui Hua Pei Chiao Chʽü, l=Anglican Diocese of North China), also known as Hua Pei Diocese (), was an Anglican diocese in China established under the supervision of the Chur ...

was founded to serve the city's growing Anglican population. The property on which the cathedral is situated was originally owned by Ying Keting, an official who worked in the Criminal Department of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. Charles Perry Scott, Bishop of the

, purchased with the intention to build a Cathedral for the burgeoning Diocese. The church was built in 1907, and is the oldest surviving Anglican church in Northern China. It was the seat of the

. Anglican worship at the cathedral ended following the Communist takeover in 1949. The building fell into disrepair, but was restored in 1990 by the Saiweng Information and Consulting Center. In 2003, the building was listed as a Beijing Cultural Protection Site. In 2019, the building was converted to a branch of Beijing's Mofan Bookstore.

Structure

Architecturally, the cathedral is

cruciform A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...

, with the north–south axis laid out as a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

. Other structural aspects, such as the aisles, are also built in a typically European fashion. However, many of the interior and exterior features are Chinese in style, with the whole building being built with typical grey bricks and Chinese roof shingles that blend with the area's

Hutong ''Hutong'' () are a type of narrow street or alley commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, especially Beijing. In Beijing, ''hutongs'' are alleys formed by lines of '' siheyuan'', traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhood ...

architecture. The cathedral's bell tower, situated above the crossing, is built in the manner of a

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

. The cathedral's entrance is also built in the Chinese style, with blessings inscribed. Several memorials to past clergymen are present inside. The cathedral's interior is furnished in the Chinese style, with wooden walls and a trussed timber roof in blonde wood.

References

{{coord, display=title Anglican cathedrals in China Former Anglican churches in China Cathedrals in Beijing 20th-century Anglican church buildings in China