Ōura Church

Ōura Church in Nagasaki is Japan's only National Treasure church and since 2018 a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Hidden Christian Sites of the Nagasaki Region. The neogothic brick structure was completed in 1863, shortly after Japan ended its policy of national seclusion, and is dedicated to the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki — missionaries and Japanese converts crucified on the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1597. Its most celebrated moment came in 1865 when a group of villagers from Urakami approached French missionary Father Petitjean and quietly revealed that their community had secretly preserved the Christian faith for over two centuries, hidden from authorities — an encounter now known as the 'Discovery of Hidden Christians'. Serving today as the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Nagasaki, the basilica remains an active place of worship and pilgrimage, where European gothic architecture meets a distinctly Japanese history of faith under persecution.