Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan
The Basilica of the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan ( Japanese 日本 二 十六 聖 殉教 者 堂 , Nihon nijūroku seijunkyōshadō ) is a Roman Catholic minor basilica in Nagasaki , Japan , built shortly after the end of the closure of Japan in 1853. The also called Ōura Church ( 大 浦 天主堂 , Ōura Tenshudō ) known basilica is dedicated to the martyrs of Nagasaki . It is part of the UNESCO world cultural heritage . For a long time it was the only European-style building in the National Treasures of Japanand is considered the oldest church in Japan. Since the consecration of the Urakami Cathedral , it has served as the co- cathedral of the Archdiocese of Nagasaki .
history
In 1863 two French priests from the Société des Missions-Étrangères , Fathers Louis Furet and Bernard Petitjean , landed in Nagasaki to build a church in honor of the martyrs of Nagasaki. The martyrs were nine European priests and seventeen Japanese Christians who had been crucified in 1597 on the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi . The church was completed in 1864. It was designed by the builder of the Glover residence , Koyama Hidenoshin, and was originally a small wooden church with three naves and three octagonal towers. The present-day, much larger building dates from 1879. The five-aisled, neo-Gothic basilica was built with white plastered bricks and vaults, as well as an octagonal tower. The design is similar to a Belgian plan used by Catholic missionaries for an older church in Osaka . The leaded glass windows were imported from France.
On March 17, 1865, shortly after the church was completed, Father Petitjean saw a group standing in front of the church. They indicated to him that he should open the gates for them. When the priest was kneeling in front of the altar, an old woman from the group approached him and said, “We have the same feeling in our hearts as you do. Where is the statue of the Virgin Mary? ”Petitjean found out that this group came from a village near Urakami and was Kakure Kirishitans , descendants of the first Japanese Christians who went into hiding after the Shimabara uprising in the 1630s. The white statue of the Virgin Mary was imported from France and placed in memory of the event. The bronze relief in the courtyard below the church shows the scene of the discovery. Tens of thousands of underground Christians came to the Nagasaki area. The news of this reached Pope Pius IX. who declared the event to be a miracle of the Orient .
The Ōura Church was declared the National Treasure of Japan in 1933 . It remained the only European-style building to receive this honor until 2009, when the neo-baroque Akasaka Palace was declared a national treasure. From 2007 to 2016 she headed a then withdrawn list of churches and Christian sites in Nagasaki on the tentative list of world heritage in Japan . In 2018 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region .
On April 26, 2016, the church was the first Japanese church to be awarded the rank of minor basilica by Pope Francis .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Dallas Finn: Meiji Revisited: The Sites of Victorian Japan. Weatherhill, New York 1995, pp. 12-13.
- ↑ Francisque Marnas: La Religion de Jesus Ressuscitée au Japon dans la seconde moitie de XIX siècle . 2 vols. Delhomme et Briguet, Paris 1897, pp. 487-490.
- ↑ Entry in the list with the number 1495 , accessed on January 23, 2019.
- ↑ Japan gets its first minor Basilica , Vatican Radio, November 9, 2016, accessed August 8, 2017.
Web links
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Nagasaki City Tourism Guide - Ōura Cathedral
Coordinates: 32 ° 44 '2.8 " N , 129 ° 52' 12.8" E