Gangneung Daedoho-bu Gwana

History & origins

The National Heritage Portal records the period of the Gangneung-daedohobu Government Office site as 936, the nineteenth year of King Taejo of Goryeo. The site served for a long period as an administrative center of the Gangneung region. During the Joseon dynasty it housed the administrative offices of Gangneung-daedohobu and exercised judicial functions as well as administrative duties. The site was designated a Historic Site on July 11, 1994.

In Catholic history, the office is especially significant because of its judicial role during times of persecution. According to the Diocese of Chuncheon, Catholics were interrogated and imprisoned there, and some believers were martyred in the jail under its jurisdiction. This is why the site is remembered as one of the concrete places associated with the history of persecution in the Yeongdong region.

The diocesan account names Stephen Sim Neung-seok and Anthony Yi Yu-il among the known Catholics connected with the Byeongin Persecution in the region. The two were arrested while living their faith together, taken to the Left Police Bureau in Seoul, and martyred there after interrogation and punishment. The Diocese of Chuncheon, however, states only that they “may have passed through” the Gangneung-daedohobu Government Office before being transferred to Seoul; it therefore cannot be stated as fact that the two men themselves were interrogated at this office.

Stephen Sim and Anthony Yi are included in the beatification cause known as “John the Baptist Yi Byeok and 132 Companions.” The present Catholic memory of the Gangneung-daedohobu Government Office is significant because it preserves together the documented judicial history of the government office and the memory of persecution in the Yeongdong region.