Saint Dominic's Cathedral, Fuzhou

Saint Dominic's Cathedral(in Chinese 福州圣多明我主教座堂), locally known as the Fanchuanpu Tianzhutang(Literally, Pan-ship Oura

Catholic Church) is located by the Min River, Fuzhou, Fujian, China. It is the Seat of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Fuzhou and the Ecclesiastical Province of Fuzhou.

It was first established in the third year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1864) by the Spanish Dominicans. In 1911, it was erected as the Cathedral Church of the Archdiocese of Fuzhou. In the 21st year of the Republic of China (1932) the old building was demolished and the present Cathedral was began in an area of 1371.4 square meters that can accommodate 3,000 people. It was known as "The Grandest Church in the South of Yangtze ", and it is still the largest Catholic church in Fujian today. It was said that the sound of its bells ringing can be heard from more than ten miles away.

Before 1949, of more of the 10,000 Catholics of Fuzhou, half of them did belong to the Cathedral(5153 people).

During the Cultural Revolution, the church was attacked by the red guards in 1966, who then proceeded to removing the cross from the spire atop the Cathedral tower. The Cathedral was closed and used for other purposes. It was reopened in 1985. In 1994, the Cathedral of St. Dominic was the center of worship of about 16,000 Catholics and it still gather the half of the Catholic population of the Fuzhou.

Other than the Cathedral itself, there are several other buildings form the Cathedral Complex. These buildings are:

• The Cathedral Rectory
• The Archdiocesan Center and Office
• The Cathedral Garden, which contains a large standing crucifix; a shrine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary/Our Lady of Fatima; a shrine to St. Therese; a statue of Sacred Heart of Jesus erected in the year 1990; a sculptural group featuring Christ as the Good Shephard; Stones engraved with Bible passages in Chinese; light-up religious texts; Statues of angels and various Saints, including Sts. Peter and Paul the Apostles, St. John Bosco, St. Michael the Archangel, etc.

• 
  The outdoor crucifix
• 
  Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary/Our Lady of Fatima
• 
  Shrine of St. Therese
• 
  Side of the Cathedral Rectory. The Good Shephard Sculptural Group is in the foreground.
• 
  Statues of Sts. Peter and Paul the Apostles in front of the Cathedral Rectory
• 
  Statue of St. John Bosco

In order to reverse the damages inflicted upon the Cathedral during the Cultural Revolution, as well as the deteriorations through the years, the Cathedral was heavily renovated and restore in 2017. The nave column capitals were gilded to highlight the details. The walls of the Cathedral, now covered with mold due to the damp climate of South China, was cleaned and whitewashed. Leaded stained-glass windows featuring simple designs were specially commissioned and installed on the west-end of the Cathedral as well as the three east windows featuring the Holy Spirit and the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church in the chancel. In addition, a new marble High Altar and Versus Populum Altar, Ambo, baptismal font, Altar of St. Joseph, and Altar of St. Therese, as well as new matching altar rails were commissioned and was installed at the Cathedral. Other changes includes the addition of the new angel holy water basins and the removal of the curtains and the curtain rods of the nave windows.

The more complicated leaded painted stained-glass windows featuring biblically scenes and Marian Apparitions and other Catholic iconographies was later installed in the Cathedral nave.

The church was listed among the major cultural relics of the Fujian Province in 1996. Due to the Fuzhou's urban development of the South Riverside Avenue in 2008, which is projected to go through where the Cathedral rectory was standing, the Cathedral rectory was structurally relocated. The Cathedral rectory structural relocation was conducted by the Academy of Building Research in order to make some modifications without altering its beauty and original conception.[1] Due to the 2008 urban developments that occurred, the Cathedral rectory was rotated 90 degrees after being moved 80 meters to make way for the street building.