St. Ignatius Cathedral
Rebuilt Neo-Gothic cathedral with twin spires and stained glass blending saints and Chinese icons.
Location
About this audio guide
St. Ignatius Cathedral in Shanghai opens in 1966, as Red Guards climb the twin spires and smash out the stained glass, turning the sanctuary into a state grain warehouse for a decade. The guide reaches back further too, to a Ming-dynasty scholar named Xu Guangqi, baptized by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, whose donated land still gives this district its name, and forward to the reopening after 1978. Listen for how the cathedral's rebuilders chose to fill its windows once the doors opened again.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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