St Nicholas Church

St Nicholas Church (圣尼古拉堂, Shèng Nígǔlā Táng) at 16 Gaolan Road was built between 1932 and 1934 for Shanghai’s Russian Orthodox community. It stands in the former French Concession, was listed as a historical building in 1994, and has been put to several other uses since it stopped being a church.

The congregation began in December 1924 as a military chapel in a house on Xiafei Road (霞飞路, Xiáfēi Lù). It moved premises twice before a purpose-built church was planned. In 1932 General Gleb Glebov (格列博夫) led a fundraising drive among White Russians and other foreigners, which raised 100,000 silver dollars.

According to Chinese Wikipedia, the foundation ceremony took place on 18 December 1932, and the church was consecrated on 31 March 1934.

Chinese Wikipedia says the design was donated by a Russian emigre architect recorded in Chinese as Yalong (亚龙). The church was Byzantine in style, with nine golden domes and room for roughly 400 to 500 worshippers.

After 1949 most Russian emigres left Shanghai. Chinese Wikipedia dates the closure of the church to August 1955; English Wikipedia says 1949. In 1966 the domes were destroyed and a factory occupied the building. The domes were later rebuilt with simpler mosaic tile cladding.

The church was recognised on 15 February 1994 as a protected building, in the second batch of Shanghai Outstanding Historical Buildings. Later tenants included a French restaurant, Ashanti Dome, upstairs and a Spanish tapas bar, Boca, on the ground floor. From May to December 2010, weekly Orthodox services were held here for visitors to the Shanghai Expo.

Around the end of 2019 the building reopened as Sinan Books Poetry Store. The architects, Wutopia Lab, used a “church in church” concept: a new structure set inside the historic walls. Chinese Wikipedia reports that the bookshop closed on 27 December 2025 when its lease expired, and that the building was then vacant and offered for lease. This has not been confirmed independently, so check on site before planning a visit. The exterior can be seen from Gaolan Road.