Hotels near The Atomic Bomb Dome

The building was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, completed in 1915 to a design by the Czech architect Jan Letzel. The bomb detonated almost directly overhead at roughly 600 metres, and because the blast came from above rather than the side, the vertical walls and the steel frame of the dome survived while everything around collapsed. It has been listed as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

The city debated demolishing it for two decades. A campaign led in part by the diary of a girl who died of leukaemia caused by radiation exposure secured its preservation in 1966, and the ruin has since been stabilised three times without being restored. You cannot enter, and the site is viewed from a path around the perimeter. Information boards in English explain the structure and the decision to keep it.

Pro Tip: Walk the full circuit rather than stopping at the front. The view from the Motoyasu river bank on the park side, with the dome reflected in the water, is the angle most people miss because the tram stop puts you on the road side.