The Jesuit missionaries Lodovico Buglio and Gabriel de Magalhães founded the church in 1653, on land the Shunzhi Emperor donated. The text says construction finished in 1655. An earthquake damaged it in 1720, and a fire about 90 years later destroyed what survived. The Boxer uprising burned it in 1900, and the current structure dates to 1904.
The style is Romanesque Revival, with pilasters and three bell towers, mixing European and Chinese design features. The article names no architect or materials. It was expropriated in the 1950s and made an elementary school, and closed in 1966. A restoration reopened it in 1980, and a major renovation finished in September 2000.
It is an active parish church of the Archdiocese of Beijing, administered by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association since 1957.
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