St. Joseph's Cathedral

According to the government of Hubei, the cathedral building is a Romanesque Revival two-story structure made of timber & brick. Its total length is 40 meters (130 feet) & total width is 26 meters (85 feet). Its main hall is 14 meters (46 feet) wide. On each side at the rear of the cathedral, there is a dome-shaped belfry. The cross at the top of the cathedral stands 22 meters (72 feet) high from the ground. The building area of the cathedral is 1,024 square metres (11,020 square feet). It has five altars & can accommodate over 1,000 people.

In 1862, Eustache Modeste Zanoli, then vicar apostolic of Hubei, moved the bishop's seat from Yingcheng to Wuchang. In 1866, he bought a section of marshland within the English concession of Hankou & turned it suitable for future constructions. In 1875, Zanoli commissioned the Italian missionary Angelus Vaudagna to build St. Joseph's Cathedral. The cathedral was completed in 1876 & costed 120,000 francs. On 18 January 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, a memorial mass to mourn the soldiers & civilians killed & to pray for world peace. About 2,000 Chinese & foreign expatriates attended, including K. C. Wu. The church building was damaged in the 1944 Operation Matterhorn air raid, & underwent reparation in 1948 & 1956. In April 1958, Bernardine Dong Guangqing, a priest of the cathedral, was elected bishop of Hankou. He was the first bishop in China to be elected based on the self-election, self-consecration principle. Union of Catholic Asian News reported that the diocese asked for the approval of the Vatican before the ordination, but the Holy See declined, citing canon law that any ordination of bishops without papal mandate incurs automatic excommunication, with power reserved to the Holy See. The cathedral was shut down during the Cultural Revolution & re-opened in 1980. Pope John Paul II recognized Dong as bishop of Hankou in 1984. In May 2007, the funeral of Dong took place at the cathedral, with Bishop John Huo Cheng presiding. Vatican Radio reported that over a thousand people attended the funeral. In September 2021, Francis Cui Qingqi was consecrated bishop at the cathedral. Joseph Ma Yinglin, bishop of Kunming, led the consecration ceremony.