The Sacred Heart Cathedral, properly the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and also known as the Stone Chamber or 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 (in Chinese: 一德路56号), on the north bank of the Pearl River at the heart of the old town. It is one of the few cathedrals in the world to be entirely built of granite, including all the walls, pillars, and the twin towers. History 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 Étrangères 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. (), the first vicar apostolic of Guangdong, oversaw the construction project. A French architect from Nancy, Léon Vautrin, was asked to design the cathedral, in collaboration with Charles Hyacinthe Humbert, also from Nancy. Humbert and another architect from Paris, Antoine Hermitte, who succeeds him at a later time, both travelled to China to oversee the construction of the cathedral. Bishop Guillemin did not get to see 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 supervised by his successor, Bishop Augustin Chausse, M.E.P. (). Construction Construction of the foundation began on June 28, 1861, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and concluded in 1863. On December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, with surrounding Chinese houses and streets decorated, a grand ceremony was held, attended by the Viceroy of Liangguang, all senior Mandarins, a detachment of 300 Manchu troops, all consuls in Canton as well as the missionaries and a score of priests. The bishop and the