The Cross Temple, located in Fangshan, Beijing, is a historic former place of worship with a rich, multi-religious history spanning several centuries. Originally constructed as a Buddhist temple, the site is hypothesized by some modern scholars to have experienced early Christian use as far back as the Tang dynasty (618–907). It subsequently alternated between Buddhist use during the Liao dynasty (916–1125) and Christian use during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), before returning to Buddhist hands during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and eventually being sold in the year 1911.\n\nFirst recorded in modern scholarship in 1919, the temple suffered significant damage during the Cultural Revolution but was eventually re-established as a national-level protected site in 2006. Some scholars consider it to be the only place of worship belonging to the Church of the East, also known as Nestorian Christianity, ever discovered in China. Today, the archaeological site features groundwork, the bases of several pillars, and two ancient steles from the Liao and Yuan dynasties, whose inscriptions were tampered with during the Ming era. Additionally, early 20th-century excavations revealed two stone blocks carved with crosses and other patterns, one of which bears an inscription in Syriac. These historic blocks are presently on display at the Nanjing Museum.
