Dawu Drum Tower

Dawu Drum Tower, also known as Guanyin Tower, is located in Dawu No. 2 Village, Dawu Town, Fangshan County. It is a south-facing building, covering an area of 110 square meters. According to the records of the stele (already lost) from the twenty sixth year (1547) under the reign of Emperor Jiajing in Ming Dynasty, the tower was first built in the fourth year (1453) under the reign of Emperor Jingtai in Ming Dynasty, and repaired from 1986 to 1989. The existing main structure is the remains of Ming Dynasty. This wooden arcade is 18.5 meters high, with two storeys, three eaves, a cross hipped roof, and black glazed tiles as the roof edge trims. The first storey is square in the plane and built on a 1.2-meter-high brick plinth, which is three bays wide and open for passage in four directions, where four highest pillars reach the top storey, featuring a caisson ceiling with eight diagrams, column bases in an inverted-pot shape, and column heads being arc-shaped on both sides. The second storey is three bays wide and deep, where the upper and lower bucket arches are separated by an overhanging eave, both in the same style, and an oblique arch protrudes on each corner. The triple-eave bucket arch is composed of five transverse arches, one bow member, and one diagonal member. There are 6 painted sculptures in the building. The building was selected into the second batch of provincial-level cultural relic protection units by the People's Government of Shanxi Province in 1986. In October 2019, it was selected into the eighth batch of national key cultural relic protection units by the State Council.