Known not only for its chalk exterior but also for the beauty of the stained glass inside the cathedral, Oura Tenshudo is a Gothic-style church representative of medieval European architecture, and is the oldest surviving Western wooden structure in Japan.

While the “Christian ban” was issued for the Japanese, people from overseas were allowed to observe their own religion, and the church built by French priests near the settlement was also known as the “French Temple.

The Urakami resident Christians, who had remained in hiding for 250 years for seven generations, visited and confessed their faith, setting the stage for a “discovery of the faithful” unprecedented in the history of world religions.

After restoration of the damage caused by the atomic bomb was completed, the church was again designated a National Treasure in 1953 as the oldest existing church building in Japan.

It is also one of the constituent assets of the “Nagasaki and Amakusa Region Heritage Related to Submerged Christians,” which was registered as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 2018.