Xujiahui Cathedral, also known as St. Ignatius Cathedral after its patron saint St. Ignatius of Loyola, once crowned as “the grandest cathedral in the Far East,” is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shanghai.

Designed by the English architect W. M. Dowdall in 1904, and constructed by French Jesuits between 1906 and October 22, 1910, this brick and wood Gothic twin-tower building stands on a cross-shaped plan with two bell towers facing each other on the south and north. The bell towers are both 57 meters high, each featuring a 31-meter-high spire with a huge cross on the top rising into the sky, making the cathedral a landmark building in western Shanghai. There are 64 carved stone columns, each surrounded by 10 smaller pillars, in the hall, which can accommodate 3,000 worshippers at the same time.

Xujiahui Cathedral was listed in 1989 by the Shanghai municipal government as a Cultural Heritage Site under Municipal Protection, and in 2013 by China’s State Council as a Cultural Heritage Site under National Protection.

Address：158 Puxi Road

Ticket：Free

Opening hours：temporarily closed