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一次采訪路上，經過位于璧山區(qū)的正興場鎮(zhèn)，汽車開過金堂湖畔，突然間，一座哥特式教堂出現在眼前。白色的墻體，在松柏掩映下，安靜肅穆。

我們不由得停下車，走進去一探究竟，意外地觸摸與聆聽了這座西南地區(qū)最大天主教古教堂的前世與今生。

On our way to an interview, we drove past the Jintang Lake in Zhengxing town, Bishan district,when suddenly a Gothic church appeared in front of us, with its white walls in the shadow of pine and cypress trees, quiet and solemn.

We cannot help stopping and walking into the church, only to learn the past and present of the largest ancient Catholic church in the southwest.

傳教至此竟是為了它 The Secret of Building a Church Here

教堂名為露德堂，總面積17466平方米，由主教樓、鐘樓、神父樓、修道院等組成，整體為石制結構，主要取自當地的石材。墻體基調為白色，藍綠色作點綴。

神父蘭連生帶領我們進入了這座百年古教堂。

據《圣教入川記》記載，清嘉慶年間(1796年)，天主教傳入璧山。到了清光緒五年左右，巴黎外方傳教會傳教士Franois Fleury來到璧山各鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)傳教布道，建設堂口。1898年，與璧山毗鄰的大足爆發(fā)了以余棟臣為首的反洋教武裝起義，波及附近州縣，教堂悉數被毀，璧山正興的教堂也未能幸免。

余棟臣領導的起義失敗后，Franois Fleury返回正興，利用清政府庚子賠款，在福登橋坎（現金堂湖旁)重新修建了一座教堂。

Franois Fleury為何會在地處偏僻的正興修建教堂呢？

為了解開我們的疑惑，蘭神父領著我們走進露德堂的大門。大門內的院子現在是停車場，蘭神父指了指停車場里兩個封了口的水井，“據說，剛修教堂時，Franois Fleury在露德堂內瘋狂地挖了48口井，后來都被填了。”

原來，當時的傳教士除了傳教，還有一個重要目的，就是礦藏。他們聽說，教堂周圍的地底下蘊藏著豐厚的油氣資源。他們是否真挖了48口井，不得而知。不過中華人民共和國成立后，地質部門的確在正興及周邊地區(qū)發(fā)現了非常豐富的天然氣資源，璧山由此成了重慶最早用上天然氣的地方之一。

This church--Ludetang, an area of 17,466 square meters, consisting of the main church,the clock tower, the priests’ building and the monastery, was constructed mainly of the local stones. The fundamental color of the wall is white,with the embellishment of blue and green.

Father Lan Liansheng led us into this centuryold church.

According to The Records of the Introduction of the Catholicism into Sichuan, during the period of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (1796), Catholicism was introduced into Bishan. In the 5th year of Emperor Guangxu’s reign of Qing Dynasty, the Paris missionary Franois Fleury came to preach in townships and villages of Bishan, and built the church. In 1898, Dazu, adjacent to Bishan, broke out an armed anti-foreign uprising led by Yu Dongchen,which spread to nearby counties. As a consequence,all churches were destroyed, and the church in Bishan was not spared.

After the defeat of the uprising led by Yu Dongchen, Franois Fleury returned to Zhengxing,using the Qing government’s Boxer indemnity to rebuild a church at Fudeng Bridge (near the Jintang Lake).

Why did Franois Fleury build a church in such a remote place as Zhengxing?

In order to answer our question, Father Lan led us into Ludetang. The courtyard inside the gate was now a parking lot, and Father Lan pointed to two sealed wells in the parking lot and said, “it is said that Franois Fleury dug 48 wells madly in Ludetang when the church was just built , all of which were later filled. “

It turned out that in addition to missionary missions, the missionaries at that time had another important purpose, that was, mineral resources.They heard that the underground surrounding the church was rich in oil and gas. It was unclear whether they actually dug 48 wells. But after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the geological department did find very rich natural gas resources in and around Zhengxing, making Bishan one of the earliest places in Chongqing to use natural gas.

藏有巧思的中西混搭 A Clever Mix of Chinese and Western Style

穿過停車場，堂區(qū)大門立現，大門采用中國傳統(tǒng)的“八”字門，墻面上用的是類似中國傳統(tǒng)建筑構件的斜撐式裝飾構件，大門上方正中寫著“天主堂”，兩側寫著“圣堂維新光榮真主，鐘聲遠震喚醒迷途”，橫批“信望愛德”。

門后，小葉榕掩映著的玫瑰園，成了主教堂前的屏障。

主教堂造型雅致，立面采用了中國傳統(tǒng)的牌坊，白色為主，上邊猶如燕子的翅膀，分三個階梯呈下，下部是五個拱形門洞，中部是裝飾，頂上和兩個院門一致，架著拉丁式十字架，青瓦檐下是中國裝飾檐翹。中間有露德堂三個大字和一個圓形符號，左右兩邊是裝飾的西式拱形假窗。再下面，是高高的石柱拱成的大門，尤為厚重。

露德堂的西方建筑特色與中式元素完美結合，成為中西建筑文化交融的典范，建筑工藝也令人咋舌。

從正拱形門進入主教堂內部，映入眼簾的是一個600多平方米的大廳，大廳里擺放著十多排木椅，左右各立著五根簡潔的石柱，柱頂雕有精美的藤蔓圖案，每根立柱之間懸掛著水晶吊燈。頂上是十多米高的淺藍色半圓狀穹頂，兩排柱子與墻壁之間是較小的穹頂，形成了券柱式的構圖。

“弧形穹頂的設計有聚集聲音的效果，在教堂的最后面也能聽到我的聲音。 ”蘭神父快步走到主教堂對面，讓我們聽他的聲音是否有變化。

“你們再看里面這十根石柱有沒有影子？”蘭神父指著石柱和座椅的投影，讓我們觀察。果然，燈光照射下，地上也沒有柱子的影子。原因是這里暗含著獨特的采光設計。

Through the parking lot, the gate stood out. The Gate was a traditional Chinese gate which looked like the character “eight” in China. On the wall, it used an oblique braced decorative component similar to the traditional Chinese architectural component.On the front of the gate was written “the Catholic Church”, and on both sides was written “the Holy church is reformed and the God is glorious , and the sound of the bell awakens the lost “, and the horizontal streamer was “Faith, hope and love are virtues.”

Behind the gate, the rose garden, shaded by Chinese Banyan, became a barrier in front of the main church.

The main church was elegantly shaped with a white-dominated traditional Chinese memorial archway, the upper part of which looked like a swallow’s wings, and was divided into three downward steps, while there were five arch holes in the lower part and in the middle were a few decorations. The top of the archway was the same as the two gates of yard, decorated with Latin crosses.Under the bronze tile eaves were Chinese decorative cornice. In the middle of the eaves were three large characters and a round symbol, and the left and right sides of it were decorative western-style arched windows. And below, the door, which was supported by high column, was particularly full of history.

The western architectural features of Ludetang were perfectly combined with the Chinese elements and became a model for the integration of architectural culture between China and the West, and the construction technology was also astounding.

When you enter the main church through the arch front door, you can immediately see a hall of more than 600 square meters with more than a dozen rows of wooden chairs being placed. Around the wooden chairs, there stood five simple stone columns, whose top was engraved with exquisite vines figures, and crystal chandeliers were hanging between each of the columns.

“The arc-shaped Dome has the effect of gathering sound, and my voice can be heard at the end of the church, “ said Father Lan, who strode across the main church to see if his voice had faded.

“Do you see any shadows of these ten columns?“ Father Lan asked us to observe, pointing to the columns and the chairs. Sure enough, as a result of the light, there was no shadow on the ground. The reason for this was that it had a unique lighting system.

古建筑的現實重聚 Well-Preserved Ancient Architecture

在教堂左右側，是歐式建筑的鐘樓, 高約二十米，外觀呈正方形，四周是用一根一根石柱支撐著，直至頂端形成四個圓錐形直沖云霄。沿著鐘樓里的木樓梯往上至樓頂，金堂湖美景一覽無余。

左鐘樓上掛有一口大銅鐘，是當年從法國運來的，雖歷經百年，上面的銘文和圣母像依然清晰可見。每個禮拜天，天剛蒙蒙亮，蘭神父將鐘樓里的古鐘撞響，鐘聲能迅速傳到方圓十來公里的地方，天主教徒們聞聲趕來。第二次鐘響時，所有信徒都已整齊地坐在大廳了。

露德堂的百年歷程中，它既是一所教堂，又是一所學堂。

1902年露德堂建成后，教堂內設有讀經書的男女學堂各一所，供教友子女學習經典等。1928年，教堂逐步地把經書學堂改為“晨曦小學”，一直沿用至1949年。正興初中從1957年起租用露德堂做校舍直到1989年，那時已更名為正興農業(yè)中學，并且歸還了教堂現存的全部建筑物。這也是露德堂保存之完整、全國都少見的重要原因。

2009年，露德堂成為重慶市級文物保護單位，也是璧山天主教愛國會所在地。這里曾居住過6位外國神父，以及段煥章、陳光普、汪德勝等8位中國籍神父。

如今，露德堂每年除了舉行教會活動，也成了舉辦婚禮的勝地?！懊磕?，這里都會有十多對新人來舉行婚禮，都是我主持。”蘭神父樂呵呵地說，“2010年6月26日，璧山首屆露德葡萄文化節(jié)集體婚禮就是在這里舉行的，有一萬多市民及國際友人到這里，為9對新人祝福?！?/p>

On each side of the church stood a Europeanstyle square bell tower, about 20 meters tall,supported by many stone columns around it, and four cones reached for the sky at the top. Climbing up the wooden stairs of the bell tower to the roof of the building, the beautiful scenery of Jintang Lake was unobstructed.

On the left bell tower there hung a large bronze bell, which had been brought in from France.Although after a hundred years, the inscriptions and the statue of the Virgin were still visible. Every Sunday, when the sky had just begun to shine,Father Lan struck the old bell of the bell tower. The bell could reach about tens of kilometers wide, and Catholics would come to the church when they heard the sound. By the second time the bell rang, all the believers had already sat neatly in the hall.

In its century-long history, Ludetang was not only a church but also a school.

After the establishment of Ludetang in 1902, there were two schools for boys and girls of church members to read scriptures respectively, learning the classics,for example. In 1928, the church gradually transformed the Scriptures School into Chenxi Elementary School until 1949. Zhengxing Junior Middle School rented Ludetang as its school building from 1957 to 1989,when it was renamed Zhengxing Agricultural Middle School and all the existing buildings of the church were returned. This was also an important reason for the integrity of the preservation of Ludetang, which is rare throughout the country.

In 2009, Ludetang became a municipal cultural relic conservation unit in Chongqing, and also the seat of Bishan Catholic Patriotic Association.Here has lived six foreign priests, as well as Duan Huanzhang, Chen Guangpu, Wang Desheng and other eight Chinese priests.

Nowadays, in addition to church activities,Ludetang is also a popular place for weddings. “Every year, more than a dozen couples come here for weddings, all of which I host.”Father Lan happily said, “In June 26th, 2010, the first Lude Grape Culture Festival group wedding of Bishan was held here, and more than 10,000 citizens and international friends came here to bless the nine couples.”