Taiping Rebellion - Armory Site

Taiping Rebellion - Armory Site

The Taiping Rebellion - Armory Site is a cultural tourism attraction.

Taiping Rebellion - Armory Site

Located at No. 12 Madalu Alley, Zhongjie Road, it was listed as a Suzhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 1982.

The Taiping Rebellion Armory Site was originally the Qiu family’s residence, “Shenxiu Hall,” built during the Ming Dynasty. In the 10th year of the Xianfeng reign of the Qing Dynasty (1860), before the Taiping Army entered Suzhou, the owner and his family left the city to escape the chaos. After the war, they returned and found coal, iron, cannons, cannonballs, and similar items in the halls and courtyards, clearly indicating that it had once been used as an armory workshop. Locals also passed down stories that it was the Taiping Rebellion Armory. During the Tongzhi era, the Qiu family renovated the residence. In the early 1960s, stoneware cannonballs, circular iron landmines, sawn-off iron cannons, and other Taiping Rebellion-related weapons were discovered and unearthed from beneath the courtyard. It is believed that these items were buried on-site when the residence was rebuilt.

The entire residence covers nearly 4,000 square meters, with a construction area of 3,000 square meters. It faces south and has three sections and four courtyards. The central section consists sequentially of the entrance hall, sedan hall, main hall, and tower hall. The main hall is 17.55 meters wide and 13.7 meters deep, with broad wooden screens surrounding its east, west, and north sides. The beams are of the flat-style type, and the carvings such as the mountain-mist clouds are simple and smooth. Faint dragon patterns can be seen in the painted designs on the ridge beam, and the rear eaves retain drip tiles featuring Taiping Rebellion-style dragon and phoenix motifs. The brick-carved gate tower in front of the main hall bears an inscription from the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty. Aside from the sedan hall and main hall, which still retain Ming Dynasty architectural styles, the other structures in the residence were mostly rebuilt during the Qing Dynasty. In front of the study in the western section stands a large white-bark pine tree, about three zhang tall (approximately 10 meters) and thick enough to be embraced with both arms, also dating back to the Ming Dynasty. In 1994, the cultural relics management department carried out a comprehensive renovation of the main hall, while the other buildings remain scattered as residential houses.