The Zunyi Conference was listed as the church after the liberation

Yan 'an Qiaoergou Catholic Church

Zunyi Conference site

On Yangliu Street in Zunyi, Guizhou, there is a Catholic Church complex, covering an area of more than 13000 square meters, forming a courtyard house that combines Chinese and Western. The exterior of the church adopts a traditional Chinese architectural style, with stacked walls and flying eaves, making it magnificent; while the flat church is rectangular, and its interior decoration and layout are no different from those of a Western-style church, making it very spectacular. The history of this Catholic church dates back more than 150 years ago.

In 1861, French missionary Fu Diye Shabrin came to Zunyi City for the first time, rented a private house on Yangliu Street as a temporary church, and began to sit in the church to preach, becoming the first priest of Zunyi Catholic Church. The following year, he purchased a piece of land at the northern end of Yangliu Street and began building an official church in the fifth year of Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty (1866), which was completed two years later.

The 8th Year of Tongzhi (1869) During the Dragon Boat Festival, when the religious people destroyed the statue of Emperor Yan Temple, which aroused public outrage, local people rallied to destroy the Catholic Church and killed one missionary, and more than 20 religious people were also killed. It is called the first "Zunyi Case Plan" in history. French charge d'affaires Luo Shuya led his military ships up the Yangtze River and threatened them with breaking off diplomatic relations and starting a war. The Qing government then ordered Li Hongzhang, governor of Huguang, to coordinate the handling,"execute one citizen, sentence four people, and pay 30,000 taels of silver to close the case."

Tongzhi 12 years (1873), Hu Fali used the Qing government's compensation to rebuild the Catholic Church. In June of the 8th year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1882), the second "Zunyi Case Plan" occurred, and the church was destroyed again. In 1886, it was rebuilt on the original site. Since then, the church was expanded in the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897) and renovated in the 9th year of the Republic of China (1920). It should be the best building in the area at that time.

In January 1935, the Central Red Army arrived in Zunyi on the Long March, setting up its General Political Department in the courtyard of the Catholic Church, and holding a public congress from all walks of life in the church. From January 15 to 17, the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in Zunyi, which was later called the "turning point in history."

After the meeting, the General Political Department of the Red Army held a meeting in the Catholic Church. Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian, Zhou Enlai and others conveyed the spirit of the Zunyi Conference to the Red Army officers above the battalion level. Since then, the founding meetings organized by the Red Trade Union, the Zunyi County Revolutionary Committee, the Huishan Township Revolutionary Committee and other institutions were held here, and the Catholic Church has since become "red".

In 1951, the Zunyi City government planned to turn the Catholic Church into a "revolutionary memorial site." So it negotiated with the church leaders Hu Guozhong and Father Xia Luhou at the time, and reached an agreement: the government would use the three courtyards of Sifangtai to replace them with the Catholic Church, with the area equivalent to the original church.

In April 1952, the Catholic Church moved from Yangliu Street to its new site in Sifangtai. After the original church was listed as a "revolutionary memorial site", it was once borrowed by Zunyi Library. Due to years of disrepair, the Catholic Church gradually became dilapidated, and by the end of 1970 it collapsed due to lightning strikes.

In 1978, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage allocated special funds to repair the old church. On the premise of maintaining its original appearance, the original building's brick-wood structure was changed into a reinforced concrete structure. Later, statues of Mao Zedong and others were added in the church where the priest preached. The church is now part of the "Zunyi Conference Site", a national key cultural relics protection unit, and is also one of the popular "red tourism" attractions in my country.

Coincidentally, in Yan 'an, Shaanxi Province, which is known as the "Holy Land of Revolution", there is a church with a similar experience. It is the Qiaoergou Catholic Church located five kilometers east of Yan' an.

After the 11th year of Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty (1872), Catholicism began to spread to northern Shaanxi on a large scale. In 1911, a deputy pastoral area of northern Shaanxi was established in Fushi County (now Yan 'an City). The first bishop was Yi Xinghua, a Spanish man.

In 1924, Yi Xinghua purchased more than 70 acres of land in Qiaoergou Village, built fifty-two stone kilns, and successively established schools, orphanages, clinics and other welfare institutions. Construction of the church started in 1931 and was completed in 1934. The plane shape of the main building of the church is Basilica style, and the facade is a typical Roman architectural style.

In January 1937, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China stationed in Yan 'an, and this brand new church was immediately used as the auditorium of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In 1938, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held here. The altar at the northern end of the church rose above the ground and became the rostrum of the conference. Behind it were hung the flag of the Communist Party of China and portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. Mao Zedong, Wang Jiaxiang, Zhang Wentian, Zhou Enlai and others successively made reports or speeches at the meeting. During the meeting, more than 50 people present lived in the stone kiln on the west side of the church.

From August 1939 to October 1945, it became the auditorium of Lu Xun Art Academy. After the establishment of the Communist Party of China, it was listed as a key cultural relic protection unit in Shaanxi Province. From 1988 to 1990, it was invested by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to carry out comprehensive maintenance and restore the original historical appearance. In November 1996, the church building was listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit.