St. Francis Xavier Church (Dongjiadu Cathedral)

St. Francis Xavier Church (董家渡圣方济各沙勿略堂, Dǒngjiādù Shèng Fāngjìgè Shāwùlüè Táng), usually called Dongjiadu Cathedral, is a Baroque Catholic church at 185 Dongjiadu Road, close to the Huangpu River. It was the first church in China built to hold 2,000 people, and for fourteen years in the mid-20th century it was the cathedral of the bishop of Shanghai.

Its site is compensation. Shanghai’s first Catholic church, inside the Old City, dated from 1553 and was seized in 1731 when Christianity was suppressed. When the ban ended in the 1840s, local officials gave the mission three plots outside the walls instead, at Dongjiadu, Xujiahui and Yangjingbang. Each became a Catholic centre; Xujiahui later grew into the larger one.

The foundation was laid in November 1847 under Bishop Luigi Maria Besi (罗伯济), an Italian Jesuit, and the church opened in 1853 in honour of St Francis Xavier. The sources disagree on details: English Wikipedia says building started in 1849 and the opening fell on Pentecost, while Chinese Wikipedia gives Palm Sunday, 4 April 1853. They also differ on the model, Sant’Ignazio in Rome or the Gesù. Chinese Wikipedia credits the design to a Spanish priest, Fan Tingzuo (范廷佐).

What you see is a Baroque facade with statues of Peter and Paul. Inside, several very heavy columns, about 10 metres round, are decorated with Chinese lotus and crane designs, an unusual blend of European form and local ornament. A small pavilion to the Holy Family stands in the forecourt.

The church was the bishop’s seat from 1946 until 1960, when the title moved to Xujiahui. It was closed in 1966 and became a factory warehouse. Mass began again in 1982 in a small returned part, most of the main hall came back in 1984, and the rest followed, in 2000 or 2005 depending on the source. It was listed as a Shanghai municipal protected cultural relic on 14 July 1993.

From 2017 the church was closed while its floor was dug out and the foundations strengthened, part of a wider redevelopment of Dongjiadu, and in 2018 it stood inside a construction site. No official page confirming the current opening arrangements was found, so check on site before you go.