One of the best moments in my life is living in Guangzhou, where freedom of self gains its highest recognition. I could do many things without much pressure or restraint and explore places without fear or worries about the security. The atmosphere, the people, the food, the environment, the places, so many things about Guangzhou make me unable to forget that beautiful city. After school time, I and my friends often visited several shopping centers in Guangzhou just to get in contact with the local people and gain some knowledge about how they do business. One of my most-visited shopping centers was Yi De Lu, which is the center of accessories trade. You could find anything here starting from key chains to clothes with extremely cheap prices.
On one of my visits to Yi De Lu, my friends and I went to a monumental church called the Sacred Heart Cathedral. It was quite difficult to find it since it is located in the heart of Yi De Lu area and there was no clear direction to go there. When we arrived at the entrance gate, it was locked. I then approached the security man and asked in Chinese “can we go in?”, he said “no, you can't. It's closed”. I replied “We are tourists, why can't we go in?” After saying this, he finally let us enter the building. We indeed need persistence to reach an agreement with the local Chinese.
Built in the Qing dynasty (1863 – 1888) in an area of 2,700 m2, the Sacred Heart Cathedral is the biggest Roman Cathedral with Gothic architecture in Guangzhou, China and even Southeast Asia. The impressive cathedral obtained its current nickname, which means Stone House, Shi shi in Chinese and Seksat in Cantonese, because its walls and pillars were mainly constructed of granite blocks. The cathedral was designed by a French architect and built in 1863 by Chinese architects. The building with 78.69 meters long, 35 meters wide and 58 meters high was exquisitely designed as a replica of the European Gothic church, the Notre Dame de Paris, thus usually referred to as the Notre Dame in the Far East. A clock tower is placed in the west tower, while a bell tower in the east, inside which are five big bells shipped from France in the 19th century. The windows are made in Philippine glasses and there is a mechanical clock installed inside the building. The words “Jerusalem 1863” are engraved on the east stone of the Cathedral and “Roma 1863” on the west one, stating that Roman Catholic had its beginning in Jerusalem in the east and developed in Rome in the west.
The front gothic face of the cathedral with two twin sharp spires towering up to 58 meters, considered to give bad Fengshui for the city as in the 19th century almost all buildings were no higher than two storeys. This is also one of the reasons why tensions occurred between the local residents and the missionaries. 
The Cathedral projects different charms seen from various angles 
The colorful stained glass windows originally taken from France even add to the laid-back charm of the magnificent building. After the restoration, the original 98 windows were replaced with the ones from Philippine. 
The statue of Jesus beautifully located in the middle of the altar becomes the center of the entire building 
The wooden chairs along the way to the altar 
The wooden confession room inside the Cathedral 
The beautifully carved white stone angel statue inside the Cathedral You could visit the Cathedral for free only on Saturday and Sunday when it is open for individual tourist visits, while from Monday to Friday, admission fee is charged. The easiest and fastest way to reach the place is to take MRT and get off at Haizhu Square station. Follow the direction on the exit board then walk approximately for 15 minutes.
Constructions
The site of the cathedral once was the residence of the viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in the Qing dynasty. But after the occupation of French and British allies, the place was transformed into a sarcophagus Sacred Heart Church. During the second opium war, the area was totally damaged and based on the agreement between the emperor Daoguang and the British, an edict was signed to compensate for the destroyed buildings and properties by building a new church. After the war, there was no huge Catholic church in nearby area. It was such a pity that a city with many Catholics such Guangzhou did not have a large church. For this reason, the first Catholic Bishop in Guangzhou area, Guillemin, was compelled to struggle for the construction of a new church building starting from locating the site, designing the architecture to implementing the construction.
Financially supported by the Emperor Napoleon III and the Catholics in France, Bishop Guillemin took care for the design and the construction process. He also invited a French architect, Nanceen Leon Vautrin to design the cathedral. Unfortunately, two years before the building was completed, in 1886 Guillemin died at the age of 72 in Paris. After his death, Bishop Augustin replaced his position as a supervisor of the construction.
During the construction time, there were communication obstacles between the non-English speaking Chinese and the non-Chinese speaking French. The Chinese who were not accustomed to Western architecture design made the communication mainly caused by language barrier even worse. The problems delayed the construction and no progress happened within that period. Because of this, the French then decided to assign a new Chinese architect named Cai Xiao who had experiences in building stone houses. He was the hero of the building completion, which took him almost his entire life to finish. The magnificent cathedral was constructed by hands with the stones shipped from Kowloon, Hongkong to the site.
Since the construction, tensions between the missionaries and the local Chinese were inevitable, which reached its peak when a fire broke out in one of the Chinese’s house. The local residents tried to get inside the church to take water from the well but was not allowed by the workers. The dispute turned into fighting and several people were injured. To end the dispute, an agreement was reached that the local should compensate for the loss and damage of the building properties. The church selected a spot for a new construction causing the teardown of many houses and relocation of many people, which even worsened the tensions between the two parties.
Restorations
After its construction in 1888, the Sacred Heart Cathedral underwent three massive restorations. The first restoration was done in 1925 to repair the leakage by restoring the roofs and the beams. The 98 French stained glass windows were also replaced with the ones from Philippine. So the windows you could see now are the ones from Philippine not French. In the attempt to transform the church into a famous Catholic church rivaling the Notre Dame in Paris, the local government decided to reconstruct the building. After the reconstructions, the building was expected to be one of the tourist attractions for people around the world mainly the Catholics. It was not until 1996 that the cathedral was claimed to be one of the National Key Cultural Relics under the state supervision and protection. Thanks to the government for the restoration because it has provided better environment and facilities for the Catholics to conduct religious ceremonies.
Sources:
Personal experience and additional information from other online articles
Hallo... mau nanya2 seputar gereja ini donk... masih ingat???
ReplyDeleteya, ada yang bisa dibantu?
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