Sacred Heart Cathedral of Guangzhou - History

History

The site of the cathedral was originally the residence of the Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces (兩廣總督) in the Qing Dynasty. During the Second Opium War, the residence was completely destroyed and Viceroy Ye Mingchen (葉名琛) was captured by the British. Based on the terms of an edict issued by Emperor Daoguang (道光皇帝) in February 1846 which promised compensation for churches destroyed and properties taken from the mission, the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris obtained the site by signing an agreement with the Qing government on January 25, 1861. In his decree of approval, Emperor Xianfeng (咸豐皇帝) wrote "from now on, war should be stopped and peace be sincerely kept forever".

With financial support from Emperor Napoleon III and donations from French Catholics, bishop Philippe François Zéphirin Guillemin, M.E.P. (明稽章), the first vicar apostolic of Guangdong, was in charge of the construction project. A French architect from Nancy, Léon Vautrin, was asked to design the cathedral, in collaboration with Hyacinthe-Charles Humbert, also from Nancy, and Antoine Hermitte from Paris who together served as architects of execution. Bishop Guillemin himself didn't see the completion of the cathedral. He died at the age of 72 in Paris in 1886, two years before the cathedral was finished. The construction was then under supervision of his successor, bishop Augustin Chausse, M.E.P. (邵斯).