The Kanpur Memorial Church, originally known as the All Souls' Church, is a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located in

Kanpur Kanpur (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), originally named Kanhapur and formerly anglicized as Cawnpore, is the second largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow. It was the primary ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

that belongs to the

Church of North India The Church of North India (CNI) is the dominant united and uniting churches, united Protestant church in northern India. It was established on 29 November 1970 by bringing together most of the Protestant churches working in northern India. It i ...

, a

united Protestant A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinct denomination ...

denomination. It was built in 1875 in honour of British valour during the

Siege of Cawnpore The siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The besieged East India Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were duped into a false assurance of a safe passage to Allahabad by the rebel forces under ...

in 1857.

Location

The church is situated on Albert Lane near Cawnpore Club in Kanpur Cantonment. It is situated in the heart of the cantonment.

Architecture

The church was designed by Walter Granville, architect of the East Bengal Railway. The complete church in Lombardic

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

is attractively executed in bright red brick with polychrome dressings. To the east of the church is the memorial garden which can only be approached through one gateway. It has a handsome carved Gothic screen designed by Henry Yule. Its centre is occupied by a beautiful carved figure of an angel by Baron Carlo Marochetti, with crossed arms, holding palons, i.e. symbols of peace. This carved figure was created in memory of the Bibighar massacre, where Indian rebels killed approximately 200 unarmed European women and children with guns and cleavers, throwing their remains into a nearby well and burying some survivors under the pile of bodies.

References

External links

* * Churches in Uttar Pradesh 19th-century Anglican church buildings in India Religious buildings and structures in Kanpur Churches completed in 1875 1875 establishments in India {{India-church-stub