Wanghai Lou Church in Tianjin City

For historical reasons, there are many famous Catholic churches in Tianjin City, among which is the Wanghai Lou Church.

The church, also called Catholic Meeting Hall or Victory Mary Church, established by French Catholics at Sanchakou outside the foreign settlement in June 1869. It is a large brick-and-wood architecture of 10 meters high, 30 meters long and 10 meters wide. It is a rectangle in layout. Most buildings except for the tower are two-storeyed with cyan-brick walls, pointedly arched doors and windows, and buttresses on both sides of the entrance. There are three corridors inside, and they follow Basilica style with a higher central corridor and lower side corridors. The tower is flat-roofed. Later small penthouses were built at four corners of the chapel. The church is a good example of the Gothic architecture.

For some reasons, the church was completely destroyed later. It was rebuilt in 1897 at the same place and burnt down later. The existing building was rebuilt in 1903 and renovated after the earthquake in 1976. However, the appearance of the church did not changed much even after several reconstructions.