Foshan Ancestral Temple which located at Shancheng District of Foshan City was built within 1078 to 1085, within the reign of Northern Song Dynasty. Throughout the development history until the late Qing Dynasty, the temple had been expanded and outcome with an all-rounded management system. Of course, several times of renovation and reconstruction had been taken place throughout the years and there is nowhere to find the original architecture of the temple. The most significant renovation project was carried out in year 1899 within the reign of Emperor Guangxu of Qing Dynasty. The architecture settings that you can see today are basically an outcome of this renovation.
Foshan Ancestral Temple is well known as one of the three precious ancient architecture of southern China. Moreover, the temple has been listed as the national keyed conservation unit as well. Uncountable precious artifacts and valuable artworks are displayed within the ancestral hall even until nowadays. For example, the wall that showcases 70 pieces out from 30 types of bronze made weapons, huge bronze mirror at diameter of 1.31 meters, bronze bells and vessels. Besides that, there are some stone sculptures, stone animals of Ming and Qing Dynasty as well as stone steles. Due to its huge amount of artifacts can be found here, some of the visitors have named this temple as the “Place of Oriental Cultural Arts Palace”.
From the architectural point of view, Foshan Ancestral Temple is a collection of architecture with very high value of artistic. The major buildings of the temple were built along the north-south axis. The whole setting of the temple fully showed the solemnity of the temple itself. Moreover, the designs of pavilions, arcades and corridors of the temple are strictly according to the designing rules of ancient Chinese garden.
On the other hand, Foshan Ancestral Temple is known as Folk Arts Museum as well among the tourists. Foshan is a place that well known for wood carving, thus, the whole architecture is fully designed with delicate carving. The huge enshrined table which is placed in front of the main hall was one of the most famous gold-lacquered wooden craft of Foshan.