A CuO-based material Cu5V2O10 was successfully grown in a closed crucible using Sr(OH)(2)center dot 8H(2)O as flux. The structure of Cu5V2O10 can be viewed as being composed of two types of zigzag Cu-O chains running along the b- and c-axes, which shows a two-dimensional crosslike framework with 12-column square tunnels along the a-axis. Magnetic measurements show that Cu5V2O10 exhibits unexpected large magnetic anisotropy, which is the first time magnetic anisotropy energy of similar to 10(7) erg/cm(3) in the CuO-based materials has been observed. The origins of large anisotropy are suggested to arise from strong anisotropic exchanges due to the particular bonding geometry and the Jahn-Teller distortion of Cu2+ ions. Further, the band structure investigated by the GGA+U method suggests that Cu5V2O10 is a semiconductor.