Gereja Ayam is the common nickname for an unusually shaped

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

in the area of

Magelang Magelang () is one of six cities in Central Java that are administratively independent of the regencies in which they lie geographically. Each of these cities is governed by a mayor rather than a ''bupati''. Magelang city covers an area of 18. ...

Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The nickname, which translates to "chicken church" in English, arose because the structure's shape resembles a

hen Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman. Hen or Hens may also refer to: Places Norway *Hen, Buskerud, a village in Ringer ...

to most onlookers, although the builder intended it to be the shape of a

dove Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

. The building was erected during the 1990s by Daniel Alamsjah, who claimed to have been inspired by God to build a prayer house through a dream he had in 1989. Alamsjah is

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, but envisioned Gereja Ayam as a place to welcome followers of any religion for prayer or meditation. Due to financial difficulties and local resistance, the construction was never finished. The construction was halted in 2000 and the building has since largely been left to deteriorate. In spite of this, in recent years the place has become reasonably frequented by tourists, as well as by couples seeking either to take wedding photographs or to be wed in the building. Besides serving in a religious capacity, the building has also been used to rehabilitate disabled children or drug addicts, or as an insane asylum. Following depictions of the site in several films over the past decade, the church has achieved a level of fame and is now a

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural b ...

. It's popularity with tourists has led to the building of a cafe in the chicken's rear selling drinks and Indonesian snacks. The documentary '' Into the Inferno'' from 2016 devotes a segment to the church. It argues that the church was intended to have a connection with a local volcano, as the head of the dove points in the direction of the volcano.

References

Churches in Java {{Indonesia-struct-stub Abandoned buildings and structures