St. Joseph's Church, Beijing, Catholic church in Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng District, China.
St. Joseph's Church is a Romanesque Revival church at 74 Wangfujing Street, set on a raised bluestone platform. Its west facade has three arched portals, a central rose window with a cross, and paired columns; three towers with ribbed domes and crosses rise above. The grey-brick interior has 18 columns and white vaults with dark ribs.
An Italian Jesuit named Lodovico Buglio founded the original congregation in 1653 with the Shunzhi Emperor's permission. Over the following centuries, the structure endured significant damage but was eventually restored.
The church is also called Dongtang, the East Church, because it stood east of the Nantang at Xuanwumen. Its name day is marked with Mass, and the square in front, built in 2000, holds a white statue of Saint Joseph holding the child Jesus in a memorial pavilion. The facade bears the couplet "庇民大德包中外,尚文宏勋冠古今" with the horizontal inscription "惠我东方".
The church stands on the east side of Wangfujing Street at number 74, set back about 55 metres from the street behind a gate moved eastward in 2000. The forecourt square covers more than 8,000 square metres, with a garden of about 1,000 square metres on the south side of the nave. The main door faces west, so the facade is lit in the afternoon.
The building survived an earthquake in 1720, the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and destruction during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Each time it was damaged, it was reconstructed, making it a symbol of resilience in Beijing's religious history.
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