Ōura Cathedral

photo by 663highland · CC BY 2.5

photo by Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0

In 1865 some farmers revealed here that they had been hidden Christians for 250 years.

Completed in December 1864 by the French missionaries Furet and Petitjean, it is the oldest church still standing in Japan. On 17 March 1865 a group of residents of Urakami approached Petitjean and secretly revealed to him that they were Christians, descendants of those who had kept the faith through two centuries of prohibition: Pope Pius IX called it the ‘miracle of the Orient’.

Built between 1862 and 1864 and dedicated to the 26 martyrs crucified in Nagasaki in 1597, it has been a National Treasure since 1933 and, since 2018, a component of the UNESCO site on the places of the hidden Christians of Nagasaki and Amakusa.

ℹ️ Adult ticket ¥1,000 (¥400 junior high/high school, ¥300 elementary school), including the adjoining museum. A 5-minute walk from Ōura Tenshudō tram stop.

🚉 First floor · 4 min walk

Sources: ja.wikipedia.org

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