Kitamachi

Category: Townscape

Kitamachi Tegaimon Tourist Information Center

Kitamachi Nabeya Tourist Information Center

Kitamachi was once the north side of the old Nara town center. It is now the area stretching north from Kintetsu-Nara Station.

It has attractive temples and shrines, such as Hannyaji Temple, which is famous for cosmos flowers, and Naratsuhiko Shrine. It also has examples of architecture from the Modern era, including The Former Nara Prison and Nara Women's University Memorial Hall.

The tourist information centers are housed in Modern-era buildings. One is a former bank, and the other is a former police station. They are operated with the cooperation of the local people.

Address:

(Tegaimon) Around Tegai-cho, Nara City

Access:

40 minutes walk from JR Nara Station, 20 minutes walk from Kintetsu-Nara Station

12 minutes by bus from JR Nara Station, 5 minutes by bus from Kintetsu-Nara Station

○ Soon after getting off at "Tegai-cho"

Inquiries:

Nara City Kitamachi Tegaimon Tourist Information Center 0742-24-1940

Nara City Kitamachi Nabeya Tourist Information Center 0742-23-1928

The Former Nara Prison

This is one of the five great prisons of the Meiji period (Chiba, Kanazawa, Nara, Nagasaki, Kagoshima). It is considered to have been designed by Keijiro Yamashita, an architect who worked at the Ministry of Justice and designed many prisons and courthouses. The prison was completed in 1908. Five prison blocks are arranged in a fan shape around the watchhouse in the center of the site. Related facilities, including the prison workshop and detention building, remain almost in their original state. The main buildings have a unified outer appearance, with walls of red brickwork in the beautiful and imposing Romanesque style. The buildings are arranged symmetrically in an orderly manner. In 2017, 19 buildings of the prison were nationally designated as Important Cultural Properties.

Highlights of the area

World Heritage Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara

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