Guangzhou's Sacred Heart Cathedral

Cathedral of the Sacred Heart
The southern front façade
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Literal meaning	Jesus's Sacred Heart Cathedral
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yēsū Shèngxīn Zhǔjiàozuòtáng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Ye4sou1 Sing3sam1 Zyu2gaau3zo6tong4
The Stone House
Chinese
Literal meaning	Stone Room
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Shíshì Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Sek⁶-sat¹

The Sacred Heart Cathedral, properly the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and also known as the Stone House by locals, is a Gothic Revival Roman Catholic cathedral in Guangzhou, China. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Guangzhou. The cathedral is located at 56 Yide Road, on the north bank of the Pearl River at the heart of the old town. It is one of the four churches in the world to be entirely built of granite, including all the walls, pillars, and towers (the other three are Notre Dame de Paris, Westminster Abbey and Cologne Cathedral).

The site of the cathedral was originally the residence of the Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces in the Qing dynasty. During the Second Opium War, the residence was completely destroyed and Viceroy Ye Mingchen was captured by the British. Based on the terms of an imperial edict issued by the Daoguang Emperor in February 1846 which promised compensation for churches destroyed and properties taken from the mission, the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris obtained the site by signing an agreement with the Qing government on January 25, 1861. In his decree of approval, the Xianfeng Emperor wrote "from now on, war should be stopped and peace be sincerely kept forever".

With financial support from Napoleon III and donations from French Catholics,bishop Philippe François Zéphirin Guillemin, M.E.P. 明稽章), the first vicar apostolic of Guangdong, was in charge of the construction project. A French architect from Nancy, , was asked to design the cathedral, in collaboration with Charles Hyacinthe Humbert, also from Nancy, and Antoine Hermitte from Paris who together served as executive architects. Bishop Guillemin himself did not witness the completion of the cathedral, as he died at the age of 72 in Paris in 1886, two years before the cathedral was finished. The construction was then supervised by his successor, bishop Augustin Chausse, M.E.P. (邵斯).