A Look at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in its Heyday
Haerbin is no historical heavyweight like Xian or even Beijing, being a relative newcomer in Chinese history, it still has a lot of interesting recent history. This one naturally involves the time when there were a lot of foreigners here, particularly Russians. The Russians made numerous structures in Haerbin which carry the dinstinctly Russian style of building. Not surprisingly, one of the most striking examples of Russian inspired architecture in Haerbin is the Saint Sophia Cathedral 圣索菲亚大教堂 and now the Haerbin Architectural Art Museum 哈尔滨建筑艺术馆.
Scale Model of the Former Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Haerbin 哈尔滨
The museum also showcase some of the part structures that were built in Haerbin. One in particular struck me, there was another Russian styled church, Saint Nicholas Cathedral, was apparently was built in what is now Hongbo Square which is one of the major commercial centers in Haerbin today. It was built in 1899 but was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution’s nationalistic fervor. It is such a pity since the addition of another church in that area would have definitely improved it. Right now, it wasn’t very interesting as it was just a jungle of large buildings and shopping centers. There is a scale model of the former cathdral and its environs, it is an attractive structure, it was too bad it was not longer there. Maybe they can rebuild it someday as part of their heritage collection.
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