Ruins of Urakami Cathedral

If you look to the right while facing the Ground Zero Monument, you will see

a section of the damaged brick wall from the former Urakami Cathedral.

The church was originally located about 500 meters northeast of the epicenter,

on the same site as the modern, rebuilt Urakami Cathedral.

The construction of the original building began in 1895 and continued until

1925, when the twin steeples were finally completed.

Known at that time as the largest church in the Orient, the imposing red-brick

structure was devastated by the atomic bomb explosion, which tragically

killed a large number of parishioners. In 1958, an 11-meter-tall section of the

damaged southern wall was relocated to the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park.

The cathedral was later rebuilt in honor of those who were lost; it was

reconstructed in 1959 and further renovated in 1980 to restore its brick

appearance, just a year before the Pope’s historic visit.