Tiantan (Altar of Heaven)

Tradition says the Zheng rulers set up an altar for sacrifices to heaven on this low hill after taking Taiwan from the Dutch, and the rites stopped when the regime fell in 1683. Officials and residents paid for the present temple, begun in 1854 and finished in 1855; the carved stone characters on the side walls and the granite dragon pillars date from then. The plaque bearing the single character 一 ("one"), meaning that heaven has the final say over human schemes, is one of old Tainan's three great plaques. The temple was listed as a monument in 1985.