The mission of Hnathalo's St-Pierre church, the largest in the Loyalty Islands, was intended to make an impression both by its neo-Gothic facade and by its very Saint-Sulpician interior decoration. Flanked by two square bell towers with pointed roofs, it was inaugurated with great pomp on October 31, 1883 by the Reverend Father Rosier of the Catholic mission founded in 1865. Hnathalo is the only Catholic village on the mainly Protestant island of Lifou.