Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Tangmuqiao

Tangmuqiao (唐墓桥, Tángmùqiáo) is the largest Catholic church in Pudong and one of the biggest ever built near Shanghai. It was built as a copy of the pilgrimage basilica at Lourdes, in France, and it is still a pilgrimage place each May.

Who paid for a Lourdes church in the countryside?

In the 1890s a French missionary, Father E Lao (鄂劳), gave the diocese a large sum his mother had left him. Bishop Ni Huailun (倪怀纶) used it to build this church. Land came from a Presentation sister, Wang Chonggu (王充姑), who donated 14 mu. Work began on 6 April 1895 and finished two years later. The dedication Mass was held on the 10th day of the 12th lunar month of the 23rd year of Guangxu, which the Shanghai religion gazetteer converts to 2 January 1898.

How big was it?

The sources disagree. The religion gazetteer and the Chuansha county gazetteer give a length of 120 metres and a width of 50; the Pudong gazetteer gives 61 by 43. The tower is 50 metres in two sources and over 30 in the third. All agree on the Gothic style, a cross-shaped plan and room for two to three thousand people.

Why did people travel here?

In 1903 Pope Pius X granted a plenary indulgence to pilgrims, which made the church the second pilgrimage place in the diocese after Sheshan. Each May, the Marian month, thousands came. A rock grotto with figures of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Bernadette was added south of the church in 1915. The church was the seat of the Pudong deanery, and after the deanery was divided it kept the same role for the Tangmuqiao district.

What happened between 1964 and 1992?

Religious activity stopped in 1964. During the Cultural Revolution the building was turned into a factory and badly damaged; the Chuansha gazetteer says it was a commune factory from 1968, while the religion gazetteer says a steel foundry. The diocese took it back in 1978, and a small prayer point began in 1988. A restoration committee formed in 1990 and raised about two million yuan. On 11 October 1992 the church reopened with a Mass led by Bishop Jin Luxian, attended by more than 8,000 Catholics and 102 foreign guests, among them Italian and French consuls. The Pudong gazetteer says that in September 1999 it was listed as a Shanghai protected modern building.

What to look for

Look for the cross-shaped plan and tall tower at the front, copied from Lourdes. Find the grotto hill next to the church, built in 1915. If you come in May, you may see the pilgrims, who in the gazetteer’s words come by the tens of thousands over the month.