Belonging to the field of catalysts, the invention relates to a catalyst for oxidation of hydrogen chloride to prepare chlorine and application thereof. The catalyst takes a rare earth oxysulfate or a compound composed of the rare earth oxysulfate and other auxiliary materials as a carrier, and adopts the transition metal element chromium, nickel, ruthenium, copper or gold and an alkali metal element as active components. The reaction of oxidizing hydrogen chloride to prepare chlorine is carried out in a fixed bed reactor, the volume ratio of oxygen to hydrogen chloride is 1/8-2/1, the reaction pressure is 1-10atm, the reaction temperature is 300-430DEG C, and the reaction capacity of hydrogen chloride on unit mass of the catalyst is 0.22-2.38mmol/(g.min).