Orthodox Church of Our Lady Hall
Blue-domed nineteen-thirties cathedral built by Russian refugees, its hidden frescoes rediscovered beneath decades of paint.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Orthodox Church of Our Lady in Shanghai follows Bishop John Maximovitch, known to some as Saint John the Barefoot, who arrived from Serbia in 1934 to finish a cathedral for the city's White Russian refugees while walking Shanghai's alleys at night gathering abandoned children into an orphanage. It traces the building through its last service in 1962 and its years as a warehouse during the Cultural Revolution, when its murals were painted over. Look up at the church's five blue onion domes, modeled loosely on the Kremlin, as you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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