The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, known locally as Shigu Road Cathedral, is a late 19th-century Catholic church that serves as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Nanjing. Built by French missionaries in 1869, the church is a modest Gothic Revival structure that has survived intact through revolutionary upheaval, Japanese occupation, and the Cultural Revolution.
The interior is simply furnished but the stained glass windows are original French imports, unusual in Chinese churches. The church is active — Sunday masses draw a congregation of several hundred. It sits in the Xinjiekou area and is easy to miss from the street, tucked behind a wall. The church provides an unusual lens on Nanjing's cosmopolitan history as a treaty port city with a significant Christian population.