The Catholic Churches from Modern Times in the North of Shaanxi, China

Shaanxi province, where located the famous city Chang’an which flourished during the Tang Dynasty in China, was the first place where Christianity was introduced. The north part of Shaanxi province has a very distinctive local architectural—cave dwellings. Since 1840 when the Opium War broke out, a number of catholic churches have been built. These churches were built according to the design and under the supervision of foreign catholic missionaries, but constructed by local workers. They exemplify how western architectural culture blended in and evolved in phase with the local architectural tradition. Ever since Christian churches were introduced into China, due to political, economic, cultural and other factors, the church buildings were not as magnificent or highly decorated as they were in Europe. However, features of western church architecture were reproduced in the proportions, compositions and motifs of the buildings. In this article, the history of the evolution of the churches will be described, the surviving Catholic Churches in northern Shaanxi will be analyzed, and their development, changes in use and current reutilization will be discussed through an extensive survey of the literature and field investigation.