Urakami Cathedral

Urakami Cathedral took 20 years to build, consecrated in 1914 by a community that had survived repeated persecution for practicing Christianity in secret for over two centuries. It was constructed deliberately on the site of the headman's house whose family had enforced fumi-e trampling ceremonies for 250 years. The cathedral was only 500 meters from the epicenter of the 1945 atomic bombing; the northern belfry still rests where the blast threw it, beside a small stream to the left of the church. One of the original bells survived and remains in use. Burned statues from the original building stand along the entrance path, and a replica of a scorched Virgin Mary figure is on display at the rear of the church. The current building was completed in 1959.