Nagasaki · MinamiyamateNo.774★★★Open in map →
Oura Cathedral
The oldest church still standing in Japan, on the slope above the old foreign settlement. Soon after it opened, villagers from Urakami came in and told the French priest they had kept the faith in secret.
- FromNagasaki Station
- 5 min uphill from the tramTram, Oura branch line
- Get off atOura-tenshudo Station (Nagasaki Electric Tramway, Oura branch line)
- On foot
- Oura Cathedral
Where it is
20 more notes in Nagasaki · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- The stone stair and west frontthe white plastered face under a single octagonal spire, seen from the foot of the steps
- The Our Lady of Japan statuethe Madonna in the porch, sent from France to mark the discovery of the hidden Christians
- The rose windowglass from the original church, the window that came through the atomic blast intact
- The nave windowsthe later stained glass, ordered from Paris after the war to replace what was lost
- The former Latin Seminarythe timber seminary beside the church, now the Christian museum covered by the ticket
How to actually get there
- Nagasaki Station to Shinchi Chinatown (Nagasaki Electric Tramway, main line).
- Change to the Oura branch line and ride two stops to Oura-tenshudo.
- Walk up the slope, buy a ticket, and climb the stone stair to the front.
- See the church, then the former Latin Seminary museum in the same grounds.
- Tram from Nagasaki Station via Shinchi Chinatown
- From Nagasaki Station take the tram main line to Shinchi Chinatown and change there for the Oura branch line, getting off at Oura-tenshudo. The stop is at the foot of the slope; the white front of the church shows above the shops at the top.
- Return from Oura-tenshudo
- Take the branch line back to Shinchi Chinatown and change for the main line to Nagasaki Station. The Matsugae international terminal bus stop on the waterfront, a short walk below the church, is the alternative when the branch line is crowded.
About the place
The church stands at the top of a stone stair on Minamiyamate, the slope that held the foreign settlement after Nagasaki reopened. It was built for the French residents of that settlement and dedicated to the twenty-six martyrs put to death in the city under the persecution, and it is turned to face the hill where they died. The white plastered front with its single octagonal spire is not the original face. The first church was timber; it was widened and rebuilt in brick, and the shape standing today comes from that work. Mass is now said at the parish church next door, so the treasure building is kept for visiting and for a handful of days in the year.
How to enjoy it
Doors open at half past eight and last entry is half an hour before closing, so starting here clears the whole Minamiyamate hill before the middle of the day. Photography inside is not allowed, which turns out to help: people stop and look instead of framing, and the room is small enough that an unhurried stop is a real visit.
Background & history
In 1865, with the ban on Christianity still in force, villagers from Urakami came into the new church and told the priest they shared his faith, after roughly two hundred and fifty years of practising in secret. The building was enlarged and rebuilt in brick between 1875 and 1879. It was made a National Treasure in 1933 and again under the postwar law in 1953, and in 2018 it was inscribed as part of the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region.
Before you go
- Cash
- Admission is 1,000 yen for adults, 400 for junior and senior high school students and 300 for primary school children as confirmed at the time of writing, and the ticket covers the Christian museum in the same grounds. Tickets can also be bought online in advance. There is no car park.
- Before you go
- Opening is 8:30 to 18:00 from March to October and 8:30 to 17:30 from November to February, with last entry half an hour before closing, and the church can close for its own services. Photography inside the building is not permitted. The approach is a slope and then a stone stair, and it is not step-free.
- Another way
- Nagasaki Bus stops at the Matsugae international terminal on the harbour road, a short walk below the church. That is the easier arrival from the cruise berth or from anywhere along the waterfront.
- After you get off
- From Oura-tenshudo tram stop, walk inland and uphill along the souvenir slope. The ticket desk sits at the foot of the last stone stair, and the front of the church is directly above it.