Oura Cathedral and Urakami Cathedral

#DomesticTravelRecords Oura Cathedral is a Gothic-style church, representative of medieval European architecture, built for foreign residents in the Nagasaki settlement, which was established following the opening of the country to the world at the end of the Edo period. It is the oldest surviving church in Japan. Some of the stained glass that decorates the interior of the cathedral is about 100 years old. The church is dedicated to the 26 Martyrs of Japan, who were canonized in 1862, just before the church was built, and the front of the cathedral faces Nishizaka, the site of their martyrdom. The construction of Urakami Church (Urakami Cathedral) was planned in 1873 by the believers of Urakami, who had gained their freedom after the ban on Christian persecution was lifted. However, funds were hard to come by, and after more than 20 years, construction of the church, designed by Father Freno, finally began in 1895, and the dedication ceremony was held in 1914 as the largest brick Romanesque cathedral in the Orient. French-made Angelus bells were installed in the twin towers at the front, but in 1945 the building was destroyed by the atomic bomb, and the Angelus bells collapsed along with the bell tower. The current building was rebuilt in 1959 using reinforced concrete, and was renovated with brick tiles in 1980, restoring it to its original appearance.