Shitsu Church & Sotome villages

Atlas / Nagasaki

Short answer

Coastal villages where Hidden Christians prayed in secret, and where a French priest later gave them work, bread and a church.

RegionNagasaki

PeriodHidden Christians

TypeHidden Christian village

UNESCOYes, World Heritage

Getting thereBus ~1 h from Nagasaki

Suggested timeHalf day

Visiting

About an hour by bus from Nagasaki Station.
The Sotome Museum of History and Folklore and the De Rotz Memorial Museum are nearby.
Sunsets over the East China Sea from the coast road are famous.

On these routes

Nagasaki: the city of martyrs and the Discovery

The story

The Sotome coast north of Nagasaki was home to Hidden Christian communities through the ban. After freedom of religion, Fr. Marc Marie de Rotz arrived in 1879 and built Shitsu Church (1882), along with workshops where villagers learned to make noodles, bread and textiles.

The villages of Shitsu and Ōno form one of the twelve components of the UNESCO Hidden Christian Sites.

Sources & further reading

whc.unesco.org/en/list/1495
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotome,_Nagasaki
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Marie_de_Rotz
Hesselink, The Dream of Christian Nagasaki
Religiosity and Underground Life
The Triumph of Perseverance: Kakure Kirishitan

Shitsu Church & Sotome villages

Visiting

On these routes

The story

Also in Nagasaki

Twenty-Six Martyrs Monument & Museum

Ōura Cathedral

Urakami Cathedral

Nyokodō