Zhongwei Drum Tower

The Drum Tower is located in the middle of Zhongwei City. It was called Wenchang Pavilion in the early Qing Dynasty and was built in the fourth year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty (1631). In the 22nd year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (1817), it was accidentally destroyed by fire during the temple fair on July 14, and only the base remains. In the eleventh year of Daoguang (1831), the magistrate Ai Chunnian led Dian Shi Shen Yuan and the local gentry to donate funds to rebuild, and the building was completed the following year. In 1955, special funds were allocated to renovate the Drum Tower with bricks; in 1988, 1992 and 1997, the former Zhongwei County allocated special funds for whitewashing and painting three times, making the Drum Tower stand in the urban area with a new look. The base of the Drum Tower is rectangular, with a length of 224 meters from north to south and a width of 1665 meters from east to west. The center of the base is a "cross"-shaped doorway, which leads to the streets on all sides. The door is 3.75 meters high, with a dome in the middle, and a gossip caisson in the center. Around the gossip picture, there are eight immortal statues hanging on wood, and stone dragon heads are embedded in the four corners, which stand facing each other. There are plaques on the upstairs of the four sides of the base, which reflect the shape of Zhongwei according to the orientation. It is called "Locking Bronze" in the east, "Confronting Xiangyan" in the south, "Shuangyisha Mountain" in the west, and "Controlling Border Barbarians" in the north. When it was repaired in 1984, in accordance with the party's national policy and the principle of cultural relics maintenance, it was changed to "control the frontier". The Drum Tower is 23 meters high, 30 meters high, and has three floors. It is a pavilion building with a square platform base and an arch hole. The building is integrated in all directions. Above the base is the main building of the cross-shaped Xieshan Peak with triple eaves. There are 3 bays on each side, 3 floors and 3 eaves, each floor has 12 warped corners, and the upper floor has viewing corridors on all sides. There are 4 small auxiliary buildings on the four sides of the base of the building. The inner walls of the building are engraved with the background, time, process and related matters of the Drum Tower's construction and reconstruction. There are 6 black pottery balls erected in the center of the roof, surrounded by dragons, forming a group of dragons playing with beads, but from different angles, they are all two dragons playing with beads. The original statues on each floor were demolished in 1951. In October 1992, the original Zhongwei County Cultural Relics Management Office, in the spirit of restoring the original appearance of the cultural relics, raised funds to restore the cultural relics after obtaining the consent of the relevant departments. Kuixing on the upper layer, Wenchang on the middle layer, and Leizu, Fire Emperor Zhenjun and Guanyin Bodhisattva on the lower layer.