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The Sacred Heart Cathedral of Shenyang (in ) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China. It is commonly called Nanguan Catholic Church (in )and Xiaonan Catholic Church(in ) or officially the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Shenyang because the bishop of Shenyang Diocese resides here. In 2006 the Vatican agreed to Paul Pei (Pei Jun Min) being installed as the Bishop of Shenyang.

The cathedral is located at No. 40, Nanlejiao Road, Xiaonan Street, Shenhe District, Shenyang City. It was built in 1878, burned down in 1900, and rebuilt in 1912. It was designed by French Father Henry Lamasse. There is a bishop's house on the west side of the cathedral, which was designed in 1926 and completed in 1927. There are some outbuildings on the east side of the cathedral, which were originally a school and a hospital.

Catholic history in Liaoning
The history of the Catholic mission in China can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty when it was called Nestorianism, which was mostly believed in by ethnic minorities. In the 16th century, a large number of Western missionaries poured into China, such as St. Francis Xavier, Michele Ruggieri, and Matteo Ricci, and Catholicism entered a period of rapid development in China.

In 1693, Liaoning was designated as a part of the Diocese of Beijing, prompting Catholics from Hebei and Shandong to immigrate here, and then missionaries entered Yingkou and Chaoyang to preside over religious affairs. In 1721, Emperor Kangxi completely banned Catholicism. During the century-long period of prohibition, the development of Catholicism stagnated, after the Opium War, Catholicism entered Liaoning again. Protestantism entered China in 1807 to carry out missionary work. Compared with Catholicism, it entered China later, and the signing of the Tianjin Treaty was the beginning of its large-scale entry into Liaoning.



Construction and use
In June 1858, when the Second Opium War ended, China signed the "Tianjin Treaty" with Britain and France respectively, which stipulated that "the establishment of Niu Zhuang as a trading port, Jesus and Catholics can freely preach; Rent any land to build houses, set up churches, hospitals, warehouses, etc.”(in )

In 1838, the Apostolic Vicariate of Liaotung 遼東 / Manchuria and Mongolia 滿蒙獨立 (The Good News was brought to the Shenyang area by Jean Chenin (in ), a French missionary, who came in 1861 by way of Yingkouand rented a private house for the mission.

In 1875, the church acquired a piece of land outside Xiaonanmen and began to build a cathedral and completed in 1878, whose height is higher than Shenyang's city tower. There is a hospital and a school attached. The funds for the construction of the cathedral were raised by Father Jean Chenin. When he returned to Europe for vacation, he gave a public speech in the Parish of Paris, France, introducing his missionary experience in China. Therefore, it was built with the approval and help of the church.

In 1900, the Boxer Rebelliondeveloped rapidly in Shenyang. On July 1st, the church became the target of the Boxer attack. The bishops and priests at that time had a standoff with the Boxer for two days, but the cathedral was eventually burned down.

In 1909, the church used the Boxer indemnity to rebuild the cathedral, completed in 1912.

Religious activities stopped during the Cultural Revolution

In 1980, the Cathedral resumed its activities.

In 2001, renovation of the surrounding environment of the Cathedral. The project renovation includes the sunken square in front of the new church, the square in the church courtyard, and the decoration and renovation of the buildings around the square. The total investment in the project is 87.8 million yuan.

Historical data
In the west of Tianyouguan Street, in the first year of Guangxu, a hundred and twenty houses were built, three Western priests, one Chinese priest, and seven hundred parishioners(in ).



Architect
Rev. Father Henry Lamasse, a priest of the Paris Institute for Foreign Missions, graduated from the University of Paris, France, and was sent to China as a missionary in 1894. On July 19, 1952, in Hong Kong, China died.

As a missionary, before the Boxer Rebellion, he founded the mission of Tieling(in ). Between Fengtian and Tieling, he also established the Anxintai(in ) Catholic Foundation. In 1900, the Boxers forced him to flee from Tieling.

Due to the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, many churches were damaged. Three months after the Boxer days, Father Lamasse was back in Shenyang. He used the Boxer indemnity to rebuild the cathedral, being at once architect, foreman, mason, and also bricklayer. In addition to the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Shenyang, he also designed Tieling Catholic Church, Heishan Catholic Churchin Liaoning, and Jilin Catholic Church in Jilin.

According to the research of Professor Thomas Coomans of the Catholic University of Leuven, it is confirmed that some of its design drawings were included in "The Handbook The Missionary-Builder: Advice-Plans" published in China in 1926 (because the missionary architects in this book are anonymous, which played a very important role in the construction and development of Catholic Church architecture in China.

Cultural relics protection unit information
In February 1985, the Shenyang Municipal Government announced it as a municipal-level cultural relics protection unit.

In December 1988, the Liaoning Provincial People's Government announced it as a provincial cultural relics protection unit.

In March 2013, the State Council of the People's Republic of China approved and announced it as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Cathedral
Sacred Heart Cathedral of Shenyang, facing south, is 66 meters long from north to south and 17 meters wide from east to west. The overall building area is more than 1,100 square meters. Its plan is in the form of a basilica, consisting of a nave with two side-aisles, behind the altar there is a dressing room connected to the main part. The cathedral's three naves, divided by 20 pillars, are reflected in the hierarchic openings of the façade. The nave columns are 4.3 meters high, the height of the nave is about 14.5 meters. Until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the cathedral was the tallest building in Shenyang.

The structure of the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Shenyang is mixed brick and wood structure with triangular roof trusses. The building materials are still Chinese native materials, using black bricks to build walls and traditional tile roofs. Custom-made bricks are used for exquisite western decoration in the door and window moldings, cornice spires, and inner columns, and the whole cathedral shows strong westernization characteristics. The interior vault is not a load-bearing construction, but imitates the Western vault with wooden strips and plastering, to create a religious atmosphere.



Facade
The cathedral is a typical Gothic style, and it is the largest among the churches rebuilt in Shenyang after the Boxer Rebellion. The main façade of the cathedral is a three-stage composition similar to Notre Dame de Paris. The doors and windows are all brick coupons with complex decorations. There are circular rose windows in the middle of the façade and the upper part of the entrance on both sides.

Inner column
The two rows of columns in the interior are in the Corinthian style, and the capitals are beautifully carved. In addition, there are some pilasters and beam-columns in the room, all of which are made of blue bricks, and the capitals of the columns are specially made bricks.

Roof truss
The roof is divided into two parts, above which is a triangular wooden truss, which rests on the pilasters on both sides of the hall. The lower quarter-arch is completed by the wooden strip ceiling, that is, the quarter-arch shape is made by plastering the ceiling with wooden strips, and painting the texture of the black bricks and the brick joints with ash, which not only solved the structural problems of the roof but also achieved the desired artistic effect of the quarter arch.



Bishop's House
The Bishop's House was built in 1926. It is located on the west side of the cathedral, facing south. The building area is more than 2,700 square meters. There are 3 floors above ground and one underground floor. The entrance is on the south side of the building. The secondary entrance is on the east side, which leads directly to the ground floor. The structure of the building is a brick-concrete structure, and the wall is a load-bearing structure. The upper windows on the east and west facades have concrete lintels and ring beams exposed.

Outbuildings
On the east of the cathedral, there are 8 one-story buildings surrounding 3 courtyards. The southernmost house used to be the Huihua(in ) Hospital affiliated to the church, and the rest was Guanghua(in ) Girls’ Primary School.

These buildings are all traditional Chinese gabbled roof(in ) buildings with front porches, 6-7 meters deep and 3.8 meters high indoors. The building materials are all traditional Chinese materials, and the roof is also a traditional method, but the roof truss is a triangular roof truss instead of a Chinese joinery work(in ), and the pillars of the front porch also have Western characteristics.

Besides the east of the Cathedral, in the south, there is the main gate of this whole church area, which is 11.7 meters high. This gate was built at the same time as the cathedral and used the same materials.

Critical Comments
The cathedral is built with Shenyang's traditional black bricks, and uses Chinese materials and technologies to reflect the architectural features of this completely Western style. It is an example of the integration of Chinese and Western architectural cultures in Shenyang in the early modern period.

The churches built in China during this period were different from the simple imitations of Western churches in the 19th century. Although materials and skills were still lacking, the craftsmen had a preliminary understanding of the characteristics of Western building materials and how to make them through local materials and construction techniques. into a Western style. The designers of the cathedral not only brought Western architectural styles, but also spread new architectural techniques.