China: Shanghai's Xujiahui Cathedral (St Ignatius Cathedral) was built between 1906 and 1910

Designed by English architect William Doyle, and built by French Jesuits between 1905 and 1910, it is said to have once been known as 'the grandest cathedral in the Far East.' It can accommodate 2,500 worshippers at the same time. In 1966, at the opening of the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards vandalized the cathedral, tearing down its spires and ceiling, and smashing its roughly 300 square metres of stained glass. For the next ten years the building served as a state-owned grain warehouse.

In 1978 the cathedral was re-opened, and the spires were restored in the early 1980s. In 1989, the first-ever Chinese language Mass was celebrated in St. Ignatius by order of Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian. The celebrants were Father Thomas Law of Hong Kong, Father Joseph Zen of Hong Kong (later named bishop and Cardinal of Hong Kong), and Father Edward Malatesta of San Francisco.

The building's restoration is continuing. In 2002, Wo Ye, a Beijing-born artist, and Father Thomas Lucas, a Jesuit from the University of San Francisco, began a five year project to replace the cathedral's stained glass windows. The new windows incorporate Chinese characters and iconography, and were finished in time for the 2010 World's Fair in Shanghai.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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OLD SHANGHAI