‘Imposing and Provocative’: The Design, Style, Construction and Significance of Saint Anthony’s Cathedral, Xinjiang (Shanxi, China), 1936-40

This paper questions the design, style, construction and significance of Saint Anthony’s Cathedral in the county of Xinjiang, Shanxi province, China, which was built by Dutch Franciscan missionaries from 1936 to 1940. The methodology combines archival research in the Netherlands and building archaeological fieldwork in China (June 2019). A rare set of photos of the construction site provides the only information on the building works. Xinjiang Cathedral was the last Catholic cathedral built in China before the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. It was erected by a team of builders and craftsmen who were used to work for the Dutch missionaries in South Shanxi. The brick cathedral combines an unusual single-nave plan and a monumental Western-style façade with two spired towers. The nave and the apse are flanked with a series of side and radiating chapels, the structural function of which is to buttress the pressure of the heavy roof on the side walls. The roof combines a Chinese tiled covering and Western trusses with hanging lath and plaster vaults. The homogenous interior space of the cathedral was part of the renewal of religious architecture promoted by the Liturgical Movement during the interwar period. However, despite the efforts of the Holy See to promote inculturation and Sino-Christian architecture, the Xinjiang Cathedral was an imposing and provocative Western-style building, located on a prominent urban site and competing visually with the pagoda of Longxing Temple on the skyline of the historical city.

ISBN:978-1-003-17335-9

Publication year:2021

Accessibility:Open