(La0.95Eu0.05)F3 nanocrystals were successfully prepared from a novel (La0.95Eu0.05)2(OH)4SO4·2H2O template via sacrificial template method, and the down conversion photoluminescence were investigated. The phase and luminescence properties of the synthetic products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. XRD and Rietveld refinement result indicate that (La0.95Eu0.05)2(OH)4SO4·2H2O template can be obtained using rare earth nitrate and ammonium sulfate as raw materials via hydrothermal reaction at 100 ℃, pH=9.5 for 24 h. The (La0.95Eu0.05)F3 nanocrystals can be successfully synthesized by sacrificial reaction at 180 ℃ for 24 h when the molar ratio of RE3+ and F- is 1∶3 or 1∶5. Photoluminescence analysis show that under 395 nm ultraviolet excitation, the (La0.95Eu0.05)F3 phosphor show down-conversion emission at 591 nm (5D0→ 7F1 transition, strong), 618 nm (5D0→ 7F2 transition, medium strong) and 692 nm(5D0→ 7F4 transition, weak), with color coordinates of around (0.52, 0.45), orange-red light. The strongest emission is found to decay in a single exponential manner and have fluorescence lifetime of 14 ms.