Nanguan Catholic Church

Nanguan Catholic Church is located on Lejiao Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang City. It was built in the fourth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1873), burned down by the Boxers in the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), and rebuilt in 1912 with the indemnity of the Qing court. It is now Liaoning Provincial cultural relics protection unit. The entire building of Nanguan Catholic Church is divided into two courtyards, east and west. The church is at the northern end of the east courtyard. It is 66 meters long from north to south, 17 meters wide from east to west, and 40 meters high. The building area is 1,100 square meters and can accommodate 1,500 people at the same time. The church is a typical Gothic building, topped by two square-conical spires decorated with crosses. In front of the church are three arches, with rows of small windows on both sides, supported by twenty-four stone pillars, and the vaults are inlaid with huge patterns. There is a four-story building in the west courtyard of the church, which was the Bishop's Palace built in 1926. Shenyang is the center of Catholicism in the Northeast. For more than 100 years from 1838 to 1949, the seven bishops of the Shenyang diocese were all French, and the Chinese priests were in a subordinate position. On September 20, 1949, the Holy See appointed Chinese for the first time as bishops of Shenyang diocese and archbishops of Northeast Diocese.