Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum
日本二十六聖人記念館
Nishizaka Hill, beside Nagasaki Station, commemorates the 26 Catholics martyred in 1597. The monument and the twin-towered church with ceramic mosaics clearly influenced by Gaudí are eye-catching.
On February 5, 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the execution of 26 Catholics, including foreign missionaries and Japanese boys, on Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki. They were canonized by the Holy See in 1862. In 1962, a memorial monument with a relief by sculptor Funakoshi Yasutake and a museum designed by architect Imai Kenji were built on the site. The twin towers of the nearby St. Philip's Church are decorated with mosaics of ceramic fragments, clearly influenced by Gaudí. The museum displays materials from the period of the Christian ban, including fumi-e (trampling images), Madonna statues and letters from the martyrs. Museum admission is about 500 yen, and the monument plaza is free. It is about a 5-minute walk from JR Nagasaki Station, so it is a convenient stop on the way in or out of the city.
Opening hours
09:00–17:00
Nearby sights
- Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture
- Suwa Shrine
- Meganebashi Bridge
- Dejima
- Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum & Mizubenomori Park
- Sanno Shrine One-Legged Torii
- Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown
- Kofuku-ji Temple