Geraja Ayam

Geraja Ayam is a roman catholic church or prayer house, near the village of Gombong on the island of Java. The church is constructed in the shape of a dove, but has been built in such a manner as remind many onlookers of a hen instead; hence, the locals have taken to calling it the chicken church, a name by which the building is often known across the internet. The church was erected during the 1990s by Daniel Alamsjah, who claimed to have been inspired by God to build the church through a dream he had in 1989. 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 handicapped 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.^[1][2]

The documentary Into the Inferno from 2016 devotes a segment to the church. It argues that, since the church has been built with the head of the dove pointing directly at the local volcano, it has been meant to have a connection to it.^[3]

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