Santo Domigo Church, Catholic church ruins in Nagasaki, Japan
Santo Domingo Church is a Catholic church ruin in Nagasaki with stone underground chambers, cobblestone pathways, and wells from the early Edo period. The remains sit beneath Sakuramachi Elementary School and are accessible through a museum.
A Dominican priest named Francisco de Morales founded the church in 1609, using materials from an existing chapel in Kyodomari. The Nagasaki magistrate donated the land for the new church at this location.
The museum displays tiles featuring flower crosses and ceramics from different periods of Nagasaki's past. You can see objects from the church era and from the later magistrate residence time side by side.
The site is easy to locate from outside since the museum sits directly beneath Sakuramachi Elementary School and is clearly marked. It makes sense to allow time for exploring the underground areas and reading the information panels.
Archaeological excavations at the site revealed multiple historical layers with religious structures and administrative buildings from different periods. This layering of time makes the location a window into Nagasaki's complicated past.
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