Tainan District Court

The Tainan District Court area was a cavalry camp known as the Mabingying during the time of Cheng Cheng-gong (Zheng Cheng-gong). When the Japanese occupied Taiwan (1895-1945), they built a district court here under the direct jurisdiction of the Taiwan viceroy house in 1912. It was a place of blood and tears during the Japanese occupation, leaving countless historical wounds.

On August 25, 1915, the Japanese authorities tried the last and the biggest armed anti-Japanese case here. It was the famous Silaian Incident. After 60 days of trying, 866 people were sentenced to death. When the news broke out, the whole world was shocked. Under tremendous pressure from the press, the viceroy of Taiwan was forced to reduce the penalty. But 95 people, including the leader Yu Ching-fang, were already hanged.

The district court was renovated several times after the Second World War. It was demolished in 1969 when it was believed that the building would collapse at any time after cracks were found on the walls in the western tower. Today, one can only see the dome roof of this old district court.

It was not until the National Historical Monument Conference of 1991 that the building was classified by the Ministry of the Interior as a Class Two Historical Site. In fact, the district court is the first construction during the Japanese colonial occupation that was officially certified as a historical site.