The Former Site of Tianjin Catholic University Architectural Complex

The Former Site of Tianjin Catholic University Architectural Complex

The Former Site of Tianjin Catholic University Architectural Complex is a Tianjin Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Former Site of Tianjin Catholic University Architectural Complex is located at No. 117–119 Machang Road, Hexi District, dating back to 1921–1939.

Located on the edge of the Wudadao area—now the site of Tianjin Foreign Studies University—the Former Site of Tianjin Catholic University was actually initiated in 1920 and established in 1921 by the French Catholic Jesuits of the Diocese of Xianxian in Tianjin. They selected a site opposite Machang Road in the former British Concession. According to Zhang Shaozu, the preparatory department officially opened in the autumn of 1923. Prior to that, the university’s main building—which is now listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit—began construction in 1924 and was completed in November 1926. Over the span of ten years, facilities such as the library, reading rooms, junior and senior high school buildings, dormitories, as well as continuously built iron foundries, woodworking shops, and casting plants gradually took shape, and “at that time, it was called Tianjin Catholic University.” In 1925, departments of engineering and commerce were established. In 1930, the preparatory department was discontinued, and an affiliated senior high school was set up (the predecessor of today’s Experimental High School). In 1933, it was renamed Hebei Provincial Private Tianjin Catholic University.

On May 16, 2020, it was announced as part of the fifth batch of Tianjin Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Units by the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Tianjin Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Units