Chapel of Pine Forest

Chapel of Pine Forest

The Chapel of Pine Forest is a cultural relic protection unit of Suining City.

Chapel of Pine Forest

Year: 1912

Category: Important modern historical site and representative architecture

Announcement date: August 15, 2012

Address: Songlin Village, Renli Town, Chuanshan District

Introduction: The chapel is located in Guojundu, Songlin Village, Renli Town, Chuanshan District, facing west with its back to the east. Built in the first year of the Republic of China (1912), it covers an area of 257 square meters. It has a T-shaped layout and consists of two parts: the main hall and the rear hall. The main hall features a plain stone platform base enclosed with strip stones, standing 0.8 meters high, with a mixed wooden beam frame structure of raised beams and mortise-and-tenon joints. Side walls are mortise-and-tenon structured, while the central three beams use the raised beam structure. There are four...

beams with single-eave hip-and-gable roof covered with small blue tiles. The hall is nine point four meters wide spanning four pillars and three bays, and fifteen point one five meters deep spanning five pillars and four bays. In front of the main hall is a five-step stepped ramp, and the entrance door is set into the side wall (gable end), with a two-step veranda in front. The veranda has four wooden columns, whose tops support brackets carrying the eaves purlins, decorated with hanging floral ornaments. At the rear of the main hall, there is a 3-meter-wide pulpit raised 0.3 meters above the ground, enclosed by a wooden straight-bar railing. Each of the left and right walls has four semi-circular arched wooden lattice windows. Beneath the ridge beam of the main hall is a hand-painted inscription that reads “DNJC 1912 COR JESU SACRATISSIMUM MINKOVE I MEN”. The rear hall also has a plain stone base 0.8 meters high, with a mortise-and-tenon beam structure, single-eave hip-and-gable roof, thirty-four point one meters wide across eleven bays, and nine point five meters deep. The middle three bays are connected to the back wall of the main hall. The walls are made of bamboo-woven mud, with wooden boards installed on the lower part. The chapel is a small Catholic church built in rural towns in the early 20th century. During the Cultural Revolution, the main hall was used as a flour mill, and red-character slogans on white backgrounds could still be found on both sides of the main entrance, such as “The theoretical foundation guiding our thinking is Marxism, the core force leading our endeavors is the Communist Party of China.” The exterior wall also bore the slogan “Grasp revolution, promote production.” It is currently abandoned and unused. The rear hall has been occupied by villagers continuously. The whole building features a unique design, combining Chinese architectural construction with Western church layout and hybrid beam structures, making it distinctive and of significant cultural heritage value.

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