aeeble

Located to the east of Fort San Domingo, the former British Consular Residence of the late Qing period is a Western-style mansion of red brick and arched corridors, entirely different from the fortress style of the fort. The brick building was designed by a British architect, constructed by Chinese craftsmen using Chinese materials; its red-brick walls, arched colonnades, pitched roof and high front steps perfectly express the characteristics of a typical colonial building. The two-storey red-brick Western house built by the British is known as “colonial architecture,” a style widely erected by nineteenth-century British traders and colonists throughout East and Southeast Asia. The outer gate, or “South Gate,” is built of stone blocks from Guanyinshan. In front of the distinctive mansion lies a large lawn; with its two-storey encircling veranda in brick, it follows the British colonial “bungalow” pattern, a Victorian-style Western house. Now incorporated into the Fort San Domingo historic site, it is classified as a Grade-One monument. On the outer brick wall above the main entrance are twelve brick reliefs: the English rose, the Victorian “VR 1891” emblem, Taiwan-style green-glazed vase balusters, and “ancient-coin” pattern stone windows near the base. Brick pillars display delicate curved arrises; capitals, shafts and bases imitate Greek stone detailing, demonstrating superb brick craftsmanship. (Source: Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture) The 1860s were the years when Taiwan opened to the world and foreign merchants and missionaries landed; trading firms and consulates were built at this time. These Western houses differ from European architecture, incorporating tropical arcades for sun-shade and ventilation. Arcades surrounding the house became the standard Western mansion, stretching from Singapore through Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai and Qingdao, symbolizing the arrival of Western power. Constructed in the 1860s–70s, the former British Consular Residence is one of the few early surviving Western houses in East Asia. Excellently built with carefully chosen materials, it still retains intact late-nineteenth-century fire-resistant iron corrugated arches—the predecessor of reinforced concrete—making it of great scholarly and aesthetic value.