Bricks From France

The cathedral exists because a bishop thought the old site was too cramped. The Holy See had set up a coastal apostolic vicariate with its seat at Wanghailou Church, and the first bishop concluded that Wanghailou, in the old city, left no room for expansion, so he prepared to build a new cathedral south-west of the French concession on what was then Church Front Street, today's 11 Xining Road in Heping District. Construction began in 1913. That reasoning, a site chosen for room to grow rather than for centrality, explains why the largest church in North China sits where it does rather than in the historic core.

The building's material history is the detail that stays with a visitor. Every brick used in the building was shipped from France, which for a structure of 1,891.95 square metres of floor area means a considerable cargo travelling halfway around the world to a city that had its own brick kilns. The church is the largest Romanesque building in North China and holds 1,500 people, and its three giant domes of about 45 metres are staggered in a pin-shaped arrangement, sheathed in green copper plate on a timber frame. The green of the domes comes from the oxidised copper, which means the building's most recognisable colour is a chemical process rather than a design choice.

The church carries two official designations of different kinds. In August 1991 it was listed as a Tianjin cultural relic protection unit and named a national-level outstanding modern engineering work, which are two separate judgements: one about history, the other about construction. The building was completed in June 1916, when the seat of the Tianjin diocese moved here from Wanghailou, so the transfer took three years and left the older church as a parish. It stands at the southern end of Binjiang Dao in the former French concession, at the edge of the commercial district that Quanyechang was simultaneously creating.