Abstract: In accordance with the need of designing large welded hollow spherical joints (WHSJ) of an arch steel roof in a gymnasium, a finite element nonlinear analysis and a full-scale experiment on the joint are carried out. The WHSJ connects two cables and twelve bars, three of which are overlapped. Through the finite element analysis, the distribution of surface stress of the joint was obtained; the bars were found yielding at their bottoms in the overlapped area under 1.4 times of the designed loads. Full-scale experimental research also indicated that the stress at the bottom of the ninth bar reached the yielding strength under 1.4 times of the designed loads. The result of the experiment is basically consistent with the analysis results. The study can provide references for the design of engineering joints.