Fujimi 500676 Oura Tenshu-do

Oura Tenshu-do, also known as the Basilica of the 26 Japanese Martyrs, is a Roman Catholic church located in the city of Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan. The temple was erected in the mid-nineteenth century - its construction was completed in 1864, i.e. during the January Uprising in Poland. Oura Tenshu-do is one of the first Catholic churches to be built after the Japanese government ended its policy of repression and exclusion against Christians. The building is also considered to be the oldest Roman Catholic church in Japan. The church was erected in the so-called western style, being originally a small, wooden temple, which, however, in 1879 was thoroughly rebuilt in a neo-gothic style. The building, as the first building erected in an architectural style modeled on European solutions, was entered on the list of National Cultural Monuments in 1933 and 1953. In 2018, Oura Tenshu-do was also entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List.