Renovating a church, renewing an old attachment
It was eight years ago that Verny transferred from the Anxiliao Catholic Church (also in Houbi) to Jingliao. At first he thought that life would be slower here, but he has been busier than ever—perhaps because he can see the problems up close.
Children, the elderly, the future of Houbi—all these issues clamor for his attention. At one moment he is trying to figure out what to do about kids who have no place to go after school. At another he is pondering the problem of care for senior citizens. And then there are his poorer parishioners…. And always in his mind are the maintenance and repair of the Jingliao Holy Cross Church, tasks that are always near the top of his “to do” list.
Jingliao, a community in the Houbi District of Tainan City, was thrown into the national spotlight back in 2005 with the release of the documentary Let It Be. Since then, many out-of-towners have come here to explore this archetypal rice-growing township. The Jingliao Holy Cross Church, built in 1960, has been carried along in the tide, becoming an attraction in its own right. Yet few people know that it was designed by the well-known German architect Gottfried Böhm, who is now aged 97.
Böhm did the design in Germany and sent the plans to Taiwan, leaving it up to local builders to complete construction of the church, with its distinctive pyramid-shaped main spire and the conical spires on its bell tower and baptistry. Circumstances at the time did not permit him to come to Taiwan himself. Imagine his surprise and delight when the memory of this building was brought back to him in 2012, after he received a letter from Fr. Verny, written as renovation plans were in the works. Verny invited Böhm to come to Taiwan to see in person his first-ever project. Sadly Gottfried was too old to travel, so he asked his son Paul, also an architect, to take part in the renovation project.
With one wish fulfilled, last year Verny extended his idea to another hall of worship: the Ping’an Catholic Church, a branch of the Jingliao Church located less than five minutes’ drive away.
The Ping’an structure, completed only one year after Jingliao’s, is of a completely different style. It is only half as large by floor area (it can hold only 60 people at most), has a roof constructed out of wood, and outside the building itself it has a courtyard like a traditional Taiwanese three-sided compound, with the whole of the grounds surrounded by a red brick wall. After its completion it functioned not only as a place of worship, but also as an important distribution center for charitable relief. However, a decade or so ago, considering the decline in the rural population and in church attendance, it was decided to close the Ping’an facility. The main gate was locked and all signs of human activity faded into oblivion.
Father Verny, seeing that many children of his community have no place to go after school, decided to repurpose the site, which is located right next to Jingliau Junior High School. While the funds have yet to be raised, Verny has long had a very specific plan in mind. While keeping the external appearance of the church unaltered, he wants to build two new two-story structures. One, at the front of the compound, will be a hostel for guests to stay overnight. Another, to the east of the church, will house an activity center for the elderly and a recreational space for kids. Once completed, it will be possible to look from the upper floors over the compound’s walls across a broad expanse of rice fields and see all the way to the Jingliao Holy Cross Church.
Designing the Jingliao Holy Cross Church was the first project ever undertaken by Gottfried Böhm, who later in life would win the Pritzker Prize for architecture. But the actual construction was done entirely by Taiwanese builders.