Coming Down Alert – Recoleta Mission, Rue Moliere

To be technically accurate, not actually coming down but effectively smashed to bits all the same. The former Jesuit Recoleta Mission (Misioneras Agustinas Recoletas) stands on on Rue Moliere (Xiangshan Road) close to the former house of Sun Yat-sen on the junction with Rue Massenet (now Sinan Road), close to the north west corner of the junction. Many older Shanghailanders will know it as a building close to what was the once popular Shanghai Sally’s pub, where I once won the pub quiz! I believe the Mission was quite late to be founded – 1947 – after having been established in The Philippines and the result of a split from the Augustinian Recollects of the Philippines on 18 January 1947.

Last week it was noticed that the beautiful stained glass windows that formed the backdrop of the chapel had been smashed out – though easy to remove intact it appears the job was surgically done with a couple of hammers rendering the stained glass into a million shards of uselessness. There was also formerly some fine ecclesiastical detailing over the doors on the ground floor which is now also gone. It’s a shame to think that those stained glasses survived the Cultural Revolution to be smashed to pieces in the run up to EXPO! The building now appears to be a hastily thrown together dormitory for migrant workers employed on a nearby construction site.